RETIRED CANON ONCE FOUGHT IN FLANDERS

LEINSTER  LEADER  5 MARCH 1966

Retired Canon once fought in Flanders

A Monasterevan born priest with a highly interesting and varied career retired recently.  He is Rt. Rev. Canon Thomas Moran who was Parish Priest of Llanelly, Carmarthenshire, Wales.

Canon Moran joined the R.I.C. as a young man and was stationed in Cork as a Sergeant.  He joined the British Army in 1914 and fought in Flanders, finishing the war with the rank of Captain.  Returning to the R.I.C., he became a District Inspector in Cork in 1919, having “Auxies,” and “Black and Tans” under his control at that time.

He recalls good humouredly and without the slightest rancour an occasion when he was refused a drink in his native Monasterevan in 1920 when on his way from Dublin to Cork.  He was refused at a well-known hostelry, where the prevailing air was very much nationalistic, because he was wearing a British uniform a calculated insult to a son of the town.

Unusual preface

There was a rather unusual preface to his ordination.  He left the R.I.C. at the Truce and it was while visiting an old friend, the author, Rafael Sabatini, in Wales, a Father Murphy suggested that he should go to Beda in Rome and become a priest.

When one remembers that Sabatini was reputed to be virulently anti-Catholic (although his father had been Choir-master of the Palestrina Choir in the Pro- Cathedral, Dublin, and was the man who first taught John McCormack to sing) it will be appreciated that this chance meeting in Wales was indeed a strange quirk of fate.

After his ordination in Rexham, Cheshire, Canon Moran served in many parishes and one of the stories told about him concerns Field Marshal Montgomery’s visit to Llanelly in 1946.

Particular pals

The Canon and “Monty” had been in the same Company in Flanders, and particular pals.  The Llanelly brass hats did not know this and since they had no time for “Romish clerics” the Canon was not invited to the function.  But the Canon was not standing for that, either.  He dressed himself up in his best, wore all his war medals and gate-crashed the assembly.

“Monty” at this stage was fed up with all the ballyhoo, and bored stiff being polite to many whom he held in poor regard. He stepped out of his car, viewed the assembly with a jaundiced eye, and then spotted the Canon, standing somewhat apart.

“Monty’s” eyes lit up and he rushed over to embrace the Canon with the greeting, “Hey Tommy, it’s been a long time.”  There was a frightful flurry among the welcoming committee and the “uninvited guest” had to be given V.I.P. treatment in company with the conquering hero for the whole day.

Re-typed by Mary Murphy