When Fr Daniel Keane came to Gunnedah from Ireland, he began a ministry that would last close to 40 years and see the construction of the heritage St Joseph’s Catholic Church 107 years ago.

A newspaper article published after Fr Keane’s death, on August 31, 1944, described him as “one of the pioneers of the great spaces to whom Australian Catholics owe a deep debt of gratitude”.

All shops and offices were closed as a ‘tribute to a great citizen’ and the funeral procession stretched from the church to the Hunter Street cemetery.

Before the advent of the motorcar, Fr Keane was a well-known figure in the extensive parish with his buggy and spirited pair of bay horses.

A newspaper report declared: “He was also a splendid horseman and made little of his rides to country stations. During his 36-year ministry, Fr Keane held a high place in the affections and esteem of all who knew him. His work for the town was outstanding.”

The newspaper article said Fr Keane brought with him to his mission work ‘a robust and rugged physique, which in those days was so necessary an asset to cope with the difficulties and hazards of travel and work’.

Fr Daniel Keane.

“No journey was too arduous for him, provided there was a soul to minister to or a family in isolation, to whom he could bring the comforts of religion, the Mass and the sacraments.

“He was never happier than when he had to face difficulties or feats of endurance and always thanked God that he had the health and strength to cope with the work.”

Born in Waterford, Ireland, Daniel Keane felt called to the priesthood at an early age and his parents sent him to his uncle, a Catholic priest, for guidance.

Fr Quinn was serving as a priest in the Diocese of Down and Connor and he soon realised that his young nephew displayed all qualifications that a vocation demanded. The young man was admitted to the Diocesan Seminary at St Malachy’s College, Belfast, to study philosophy.

Inspired by letters from his older sister, who had left her home several years earlier to join the Sisters of Mercy in Australia, he felt the call of the missions.

Known as Mother Mary Bernard, she was serving in the Wilcannia-Forbes Diocese and her letters spoke of the urgent need for priests and nuns in Australia.

Daniel Keane returned to his home city and entered St John’s College, Waterford, known for its support of sending religious to various mission fields of the church.

Ordained a priest on June 17, 1905, he was welcomed to the Diocese of Armidale in NSW towards the end of that year by Bishop O’Connor who had been appointed bishop the previous year. Fr Keane was posted to St Joseph’s Parish, Gunnedah, where the parish priest Fr Walshe had been raising funds to build a new church, however, but his ongoing illness saw Fr Keane take over the role in 1909.

Fr Keane kept a frank and compelling journal, describing how petrol rationing during the war years had forced the bishop to reduce the number of Masses in outlying districts.

Mass was held at Gunnedah every Sunday, with the priest travelling to Carroll and Kelvin on the first Sunday, Mullaley and Tambar Springs on the second Sunday, Curlewis and Breeza on the third Sunday and Tambar Springs on the fourth Sunday. On the fifth Sunday, Catholics at Keepit were able to attend Mass.

Before the village churches were built, Mass was often held in private homes and Fr Keane noted that he could not no longer hold Mass at Somerton as a Mr Nagel had left.

Looking at the inscriptions on various items around St Joseph’s Church, it is interesting to reflect on the lives of those remembered. Fr Keane made a special note of a fellow Irishman, Denis Donovan, “a Cork man who camped across the river and repaired watches and clocks”. Oral parish history revealed that Fr Keane would always come out into the church before Mass, walk up to Mr Donovan and shake his hand.

When Denis Donovan died, he made his will in favour of the church, leaving £208/5/2d. From his estate Denis Donovan also provided the statue of St Joseph, which once stood in the sanctuary.

Fr Daniel Keane 1937.

 

Fr Keane paid £35 to have a small headstone erected over Denis Donovan’s grave and a further £35 to purchase a large ciborium, which he had engraved with the benefactor’s name. The balance he placed in the church fund.

My father, the late Ossie Campbell, was one of Fr Keane’s altar servers and he spoke about him with great affection when he recorded his faith journey some years before he died in 1997.

In his jottings my father said he was “privileged to become an altar boy”.

He said going to Tambar Springs was always looked forward to by the boys as they went on Saturday afternoon and served at Mass on Sunday morning. They played football or other games on Sunday afternoon, with Benediction and rosary on Sunday night.

The Sunday activities would be followed by Mass on Monday morning and during the trip back to Gunnedah through Mullaley or Wandobah Fr Keane would call in at the homes of all parishioners on the way.

The altar boys would be full of cake and soft drink or homemade ginger beer, but my father said the best part was ‘missing out on a day’s school’.

They stayed at the O’Rourke’s in Tambar Springs and the boys were always in a room away from the house, which lent itself to getting into mischief, including pillow fights.

The other church where they had to stop overnight was Keepit and they had to be home in time for second Mass at Gunnedah. Often there was no altar boy so the boys also had to serve at that Mass.

My father recalled that Fr Keane had a T-Model Ford and his assistant Fr Healy had a single-seated Maxwell – but the roads were sometimes only bush tracks.

During the Lenten season, the altar boys were formed into a choir and they went to Carroll, Kelvin and Curlewis on different Sundays to render their version of Stabat Mater a 13th-century Catholic hymn about the Sorrows of Mary. Benediction hymns were all sung in Latin.

My father said Fr Keane piled them all into his Studebaker, which he had in those days. He said Fr Keane had a beautiful voice and often sang solo at concerts – Midnight Mass had to be finished before 1am because the town generator was shut down at that time. If they were running late, Fr Keane would say in his Irish brogue ‘get a go on or we will be in the dark’ which was often the case as it was always a sung Mass in Latin.”

Father Keane went home twice to Ireland for a whole year and he was warmly welcomed back by his flock.

His journal records his deteriorating health and his many trips to Lewisham Hospital for treatment.

He was in his 68th year when news of his death was received by parishioners, and it plunged the town and district into a profound sorrow.

“There is a personal sense of loss experienced by everyone who knew him,” one newspaper reported.

“The end came at a quarter to one on Thursday morning, August 31, 1944.”

The article declared that few priests had a closer contact with their people than the late Fr Keane enjoyed during his 36 years of priestly record in Gunnedah.

“No interest that affected the welfare of his flock, especially the welfare of children and the poor, was too great or too trivial to be accorded a place in his great and generous heart”.

The newspaper article reflected on a time during the Depression when food left over from the Catholic Ball was packed in Fr Keane’s car and the “Stude” was away to the riverbank, where many children were housed in ‘wretched caravans.’

“The joy given to the poor travellers was immeasurable with that which stirred the heart of the great-hearted man who never forgot the poor on such occasions,” the newspaper reported.

“Of Fr Keane it may truly be said that he mourned with his people and rejoiced with them.”

Fr Keane’s successor James Healy PP continued the journal, writing that Fr Keane was “a very remarkable man, often described as a diamond in the rough”.

Fr Healy said the dedicated priest was “gruff in his manner but those who were privileged to know him, knew of his paternal care for his assistants and for the people of his parish, especially the sick”.

“He was generous to a fault, and many people in his parish benefitted from it,” he wrote.

The new St Joseph’s Church was to be erected during the pastorate of Fr James Walsh but owing to his illness, the full responsibility of the work and for the payment fell to Fr Keane.

St Joseph’s Church.

Some funds had already been raised and it is amazing that when the foundation stone was laid in 1918, there was a worldwide flu pandemic, one of the worst droughts in Australia’s history and great losses from the war – but the parish still managed to raise the money.

At Fr Keane’s death in 1944, he left behind him an imposing array of parish buildings all of which had been paid for. It was during his pastorate too that the presbytery and churches at Kelvin and Mullaley were erected.

After four months in Lewisham hospital, Fr Keane, felt the call of home become persistent and the devoted pastor wished “to be once more in the midst of his own people, if God so willed it, to die among those for whom he had toiled and prayed during a long and successful ministry”.

Irrespective of class or creed, the residents of Gunnedah and the outlying districts visited the dying priest.

Tended by the Bishop and Fathers Walsh and McMullan in his last hours. Parishioner Katie White’s mother Lilian Ryan nursed Fr Keane at his home. Lilian’s father Owen came down from Armidale with Bishop O’Connor to serve as an altar boy at the laying of the foundation stone of our church in 1918.

The impact of Fr Keane’s death on the whole community of Gunnedah is reflected in a full-page newspaper description of his life and devotion to those he served, along with a moving tribute from the Bishop of Armidale, Rev. JA Coleman.

Fr Keane’s final farewell was held on the Friday morning in the church he had so lovingly planned for his people.

Bishop Coleman said Fr Keane had “written his name in letters large upon the ecclesiastical and spiritual life of his community and indelibly in the hearts of his grateful people to whom he devoted himself with such conspicuous zeal for so many years”.

“Beneath his rugged exterior there beat a heart – a heart that was brimful of generosity and kindness, a heart that understood the value of sympathy and consideration for the down-hearted, weak and suffering. Kindly and gentle to all – no one ever came into his presence without feeling that here indeed was a man after God’s own heart.

“Who better than you, dear people of Gunnedah, can testify to this outstanding trait of your deceased pastor’s life. Your sorrows and trials, your afflictions and troubles were a sure passport to the kindly charity that filled to overflowing the heart of your good priest.”

The funeral Mass was attended by Gunnedah Mayor Alderman EW Westerweller and municipal council aldermen, as well as representatives from the shire council.

The Reverend Daniel Keane was buried in a plot he had already chosen as his last resting place in the Hunter Street cemetery, ending the earthly journey of a man who had embraced his adopted country and given four decades of his life to the people of Gunnedah.

Daniel Keane Crescent off Links Road is named in his honour.

Fr Keane’s grave.

Fr Keane’s headstone.

 

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