By Anthony Barich
The ‘irreplaceable legacy’ Irish priests left for the Archdiocese of Perth has been recognised forever with an historic Celtic Cross made from wood potentially dated over 5,000 years old placed in the St Mary’s Cathedral Crypt next to three of its Irish Bishops.
The Celtic Cross acquired by Dr Eamon Casey – then Bishop of Kerry, Ireland prior to his arrival in Perth to preside at the opening and consecration of the Merredin Parish Church in August 1973 – was presented to Archbishop Barry Hickey by Irish priests Mgr Sean O’Shea and Fr Michael Casey, Dr Eamon’s brother, on 30 September.
South Perth parish priest Fr Casey and Rottnest Island chaplain Mgr O’Shea, both graduates of the famous All Hallows missionary seminary in Ireland that at one point provided many priests for Australia, were on hand for the presentation at the Cathedral Presbytery with Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton, Cathedral Dean Mgr Michael Keating and Vicar General Mgr Brian O’Loughlin.
“The Cross is a reminder of the irreplaceable legacy of the Irish priests for the Archdiocese of Perth. It will have a prominent place in the Cathedral Crypt next to our three Irish Bishops – Redmond Prendiville, Patrick Clune and Matthew Gibney,” Archbishop Hickey told The Record.
The Cross was earlier given to Bishop Casey by a priest member of the Quinlan family – the last of that family of Quinlans. The name Quinlan is engraved on the front of the Cross.
Fr Quinlan was only too happy to take it to WA as it symbolised the missionary tradition of the early Catholic Church in Ireland.
On a recent visit to Fr Casey, Mgr O’Shea noticed a once beautiful Celtic Cross, much the worse for wear, resting on Fr Casey’s mantlepiece, and volunteered to repair it.
Fr Casey replied: “If you can fix it, you can have it.”
“It was clear the sudden impact of Western Australia’s ultra-dry Summer had played havoc with the joints of the Cross,” Mgr O’Shea told The Record, after he dutifully repaired it.
“It was simply a matter of sandpapering some of the wood from beneath the base of the Cross, mixing the dust with some high powered glue and using this to reset the loose joints.
“A little sandpapering and treatment with beeswax and the Cross was as good as new. In the intervening years, the Cross had not deteriorated in the least.”
Mgr O’Shea, having acquired some expertise on such matters, estimates that the 66cm high example of such bog oak Celtic Crosses to be 200 to 300 years old. The bog oak from which it was carved by “an undoubted master craftsman” is undoubtedly 4,000 to 5,000 years old.
“During those ancient times, severe climactic changes took place in Ireland and Britain,” Mgr O’Shea said, resulting in many oak, spruce and yew trees simply falling over and being submerged in water. The peat bog grew over them, preserving the wood which, in the case of the oak, has turned jet-black.
Last month, news of a whole prehistoric village being unearthed beneath a bog in Britain revealed intimate details of the villagers’ lifestyle and a well-preserved oak tree.
“Such Bog Oak Celtic Crosses owe their inspiration to the ancient stone Celtic Crosses still existing today in sacred sites all over England,” Mgr O’Shea said.
They were called High Crosses and at least 75 samples still survive from Ireland’s Golden Age of Saints and Scholars. The tallest of these Crosses at Monasterboice, Co Louth, is 6.5m high.
The Crosses, of stone, were decorated with carvings of Old and New Testament scenes featuring the Bible in “a sort of ancient film script for the instruction and edification of the faithful”, Mgr O’Shea said.
“Scholars consider these High Cross stone carvings to be a local interpretation of the frescoes of early Christian Rome”, he said.
The Cross, or, more accurately, Crucifix now installed in the St Mary’s Cathedral Crypt has a delicately carved ivory figure of Christ, while the Cross’ wood is “exquisitely carved” in Celtic design.
At the front of the Crucifix’s large base is fixed a silver plate, also inscribed in Celtic design. The plate has an opening in the centre which houses a relic in the form of a miniature cross, under which is a small label – “S. Crucis D.N.J.C.” The silver plate is inscribed in Gaelic script bearing the words, Hac Cruce Crux Tegitur Qua Passus Conditor Orbis, translated to, “This Cross (was) touched to the Cross on which the Founder of the World Suffered”.
The family name Quinlan being carved on the Crucifix’s base suggests it was commissioned by the Quinlan family as an object of family devotion and perhaps as a family heirloom, Mgr O’Shea said.
“In what might be described as a ‘Celtic Twilight’ of the Irish-born priests and Religious of the Church in WA, the Crucifix is now offered as a tangible memorial to and of the Irish priests and Religious who have served in the local Church over the years,” he said. The offering of the Crucifix to St Mary’s Cathedral by Fr Michael Casey and Mgr O’Shea was conditional on its being prominently and permanently displayed in the Cathedral.