The Extra Mile: The Life and Times of Father Gerald Swift

7/25/2019 The Extra Mile: The Life and Times of Father Gerald Swift

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The Extra MileThe Life and Times of Father Gerald Swift, S.T.

The Swiftconnectionwith AchadhMrsurfacedagainfollowingGerryRuanespieceon PatrickCrean in

Glr 2014. The ancestral farm,where Gerry now lives in Derryeafirst had the family name ofCrean. Bartley Swift of Cigimarried Annie Kate Crean in 1942and the Crean surname wassuperseded at the farm. Gerrysgrandparents Anne Kate andBartley had a daughter, Gerrysmother, whose maiden name was

Eileen Swift. Eileen marriedWilliam Ruane and the name atthe farm changed again.

Gerrys mother, Mrs Ruane, wasrelated to Father Gerald Swift,who was in Ireland last in 1994and celebrated mass in Knock andperhaps elsewhere. He had beenborn in England but ministered all

his life in the US. Mrs Ruane for along time had letters andphotographs and recalled thatFather Swift had been inMississippi. Gerry was called afterFather Gerald. He proposed that apiece should be written in Glr onFather Swift. As I had writtenabout the Swifts before, JoeByrne asked me if this FatherSwift was someone I knew. Ofcourse, and I thought it a good

idea to write about Father Geraldbeing as he was a link betweenIreland, England and the USA.

Gerry knew that on his first visitto Ireland, Father Gerald hadstayed at the Railway Inn inKiltimagh and that hesubsequently stayed at BurkesB&B, Eden House, Shanvaghara.Father Geralds two sisters stayedat the B&B as well and also his

elder brother Michael and Mikeswife Ivy. I knew that the Burkefamily had taken care of FatherGeralds elder brother, Michaelafter his mother had died in theflu epidemic of 1919.

The photo shows Willie Burkeshouse in 1970. Mike Swift is onthe left. His wife, my mother Ivy,Mikes second wife, is in yellow. Iam on the right. The Burke familyare in the centre.

A call to the family in England and

the USA produced some material,particularly anInterviewwith

Edward Neafcy October 2015.


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Father Gerald in a publication bythe Missionary Servants of theMost Holy Trinity, 9001 NewHampshire Avenue, Silver Spring,Maryland. This 1998/99 article is

the most useful source ofinformation. Gerry Ruane hadinformation and photographs.Peter Crean came up withfascinating census, shipping andUS immigration records.

Itsa long way from Mayo toOklahoma. TheInterviewshowsthat Father Gerald spent four

years of his ministry in that state.I am showing Oklahomasstateflag because it has two peacesymbols on it: the olive branchfor the statesEuropean peoplesand the calumet, or peace pipe,representing the NativeAmericans. The shield is

the battle shield of an Osagewarrior. Crosses on it are Native

American signs for stars,representing high ideals. This hasbeen a year of flags. It is asubject Illcome back to.

It is the Mayo connection that hasprompted this story. FatherGeraldsmother, Ellen, wasbaptised on January 24th, 1877.She was a younger sister of my

grandfather, Edward (Ned) andlike him was born in

Shanvaghera. The photographshows the family home. Better if Iwerentstanding in front of it, thehouse has been cleared since thephotograph was taken in 1970.

Her surname was spelled Neafseyin the baptismal book of St Johnthe Baptist church, Knock, twoyears before the Apparition thereof the Blessed Virgin Mary. The

man she married was BartleySwift. He was baptised at StJohnschurch as well, a year orso later. The family story is thathis parents were unsure whatname to give him. The parishpriest, Archdeacon BartholomewCavanagh, said,Illcall him after

me!This is how the name Bartcame into the family.Bartholomew and Bartley seem tohave been very popular anywayand interchangeable then and forsome time afterwards. Shipsrecords have Bartley coming fromDaghtaboy, which is obviouslyAughtaboy, Aghamore, with theinitialDbeing a misreading of

A.


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The year 1879 was not only theyear of the Apparition. In thesame year, so the song has it, theIrish Land League was foundedand it was founded in Co Mayo.

It campaigned for theThreeFs for farm tenants: fair rent,fixity of tenure and free sale. TheEnglish language got the word'boycott' out of this, CaptainBoycott being a land agent forLord Erne. The atmosphere atthat time and long after musthave been pervaded with theissues of the Land League and the

Apparition.

It was a time of emigration. It

was also evidently a time of to-

ing and fro-ing. Bartley first sailed

to Philadelphia from Queenstown,

Cork, in 1900. The relative who

had asked for him in the USA was

his sister, Mrs McLoughlin, in

Philadelphia. On the Ancestry sitethere is an index transcription

record: Bartley Swift married

Ellen Neafcy in Philadelphia,

1903, marriage licence 166617.

The family understanding is that

Ellen wanted to stay in the USA.She was already in Philadelphia in

the 1900 census. However, Knock

records have Thomas Austin

bapt. 14 Aug 1904 (born 11th),

son of Bartly Swift and Ellen

Kneafsey, Shanvaghera.

(Spellings from the record). The

photograph is of Ellen and Bart

Swift in 1905.

Subsequently they were inLiverpool in an area called 'Overthe Bridge' centred on AtholStreet, which was aneighbourhood almost 100%Irish. My grandfather and his wifeBridget were there too. MichaelSwift and Michael Neafcy were

both born here. From here thetwo families went separate ways.The Swifts went to Boswell Streetin Bootle, then back to America.The Neafcys - as they came tospell their name - went inland tothe Wigan coalfield.

The couplesyoungest son wascalled Bartley. He chose Geraldfor his name as a priest. He wasborn in 1916. The family werethen living in 29 Boswell Street,Bootle, which now has the post-code L20 4RP. (a Liverpool postaldistrict, but just outside Liverpoolitself.) Mike Swift rememberedthe King coming past the end ofBoswell Street. A Google enquiryshows this to have been July 11th,1913. It was King George V and

Queen Mary. The archived editionofThe Bootle Timesfor the day


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says 12,000 bronze medals weregiven out to Bootle schoolchildrento commemorate the visit and theparade from Gladstone Dockthrough the centre of Bootle and

out to Walton, Everton FootballClub and Knowsley was a festival

of colour. I imagine there was alot of blue, as Everton footballplayers wear blue shirts. Mikesupported Everton, which was theCatholic team. The fans ofLiverpool FC were Protestant.Liverpool footballers wear red

shirts. The opening of theGladstone Dock was one of thehighlights of the visit. The SSMauretania was there and theKing and Queen went aboard. TheMauretania at 32,000 tons wasuntil 1911 the largest ship in theworld. She was the sister ship ofthe Lusitania, famously torpedoedin World War I. A crew of 813;passengers 560 first class; 475second class; and 1,300 thirdclass.

Number 29 Boswell Street is thereddish/brown one in the photo,taken 2015.

The influenza epidemic of 1919was devastating. One and maybetwo of the Neafcy kids died. Ned

Neafcy said he would never playhis flute/whistle again. Father

Geralds mother, Ellen Swift(Neafcy) died as well, in January1919, aged 40. She was buried inFord RC cemetery north ofLiverpool, grave number RD 942.

Graves in section RD werebrought into use 1900 1924. Ihave made several visits over theyears with relatives visiting fromAmerica. In September this year,I was with Ellens granddaughterNancy with her husband JimJustice. We spoke to the foremanin charge of the cemetery whosaid you had to be well off to be

buried in RD. There were so manyof the fludeaths that many whomight have been RD were buriedin paupers graves. These gravesare in a wide grassed area withno headstones or other indication.He said the flu caused moredeaths than World War I.

Glr 2008 has a couple of photos

of World War I war graves, whichmy brother David and I tookwhilst visiting the memorialinscription to Patrick Neafsy ofthe 2ndIrish Guards at Loos,France. There is cemetery aftercemetery of the fallen, each withacre upon acre of graveheadstones. It is hard to imaginethat a disease killed even more

people and in a shorter time.

You are unlikely to see the wordpauperon a plan of Fordcemetery. Evidently the wordpublic is preferred nowadays.Curiously, opposite the publicarea, there is a large memorialcalled the Fenian Monument. It isdedicated to 16 Fenians of 1867interred in this cemetery. Theforeman, in his blue jacket with


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Everton badge, said he didntknow how this memorial ever gotpermission.

Bartley Swift had no one to mind

his children while he worked.Young Bart was sent to live withmy grandparents, the Neafcys, ina place we called Simms LaneEnds in Ashton in Makerfield. MikeSwift was sent to Mayo where hestayed with the Burke family andwent to school in Cigi. Thethree sisters, Nora, Mary andKathleen went to an orphanage in

Crosby, a prosperous suburbnorth of Liverpool.

Bartley remarried a year or soafter his wife's death. His secondwife was Bridget Mulkeen. Theplan was then to go to America.There are shipping andimmigration records which arefascinating and a study in

themselves. Keeping it short,there are records of voyages from1921 to 1927.

The record of SS Adriatic has stepmother Bridget Swift arriving onMay 8th, 1927 with Bartholomewand his sisters Catharine(Kathleen), and Norah. Bart waseleven when he arrived in

Philadelphia. All other membersof the family had arrived wellbefore 1927. Young Bart was nottold until after her death that hisfathers second wife was not hisbirth mother.

The houses in Bootle and Ashtonwould have been rented. Theywould have been similar inaccommodation as well. Ours hadthree bedrooms. It was the right

half of the green house in thephoto. At some later time ourhouse and the one next door were

knocked into one. The photo is

September 2011. They werepainted white in our day.

Father Gerald would have lived inthat house for some time after1919, or late 1918 possibly whenhe was 3 or 4 years old. I livedthere myself, 1945 to 1951, from2 to 8 years old. At that time wehad fixed gas lights downstairs

and portable paraffin lampsupstairs. Posh houses had gasupstairs. Bootle, being urban, wasprobably more advanced and mayeven have had electricity. I neverasked.

Bridget died in the Septemberfollowing their arrival in May1927. In 1928 still in Philadelphia,Bartley married Margaret Levins,marriage licence 568140. Withinthree years the family had movedto Hoboken, New Jersey, and itwas aged 13 or 14 at Our Lady ofGrace School that young Bartleyfirst heard of Holy Trinity,Alabama. In October 1931 hemade the decision to go to HolyTrinity. It was there he metFather Judge and others of what

became his community. Hestayed for four years of high


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school and prep seminary and inJune 1935 entered the novitiateand was professed the following

year. He becamea US citizen in

August, 1937.This is his photoon thenaturalisationdocument, found

by Peter Crean. It is signedBartley Swift.

Father Geralds first assignmentwas to St Augustine Military

Academy in Rio Piedras, PuertoRico. He was there until 1938 andhis job was to run the office andkeep the accounts of the houseand the students. Following thathe was two years at college inHoly Trinity, Alabama. He wasordained in 1946.

His first mission was to Old Town

Alexandria, Virginia. 1948 sawhim in Tennessee in Savannahand Bolivar. Savannah had beenthe HQ of Union Army GeneralGrant at the Civil War battle ofShiloh, 1862. This was the thirdbloodiest battle of the war and adefeat for the South.

There were few Catholics in the

area at that time. Father Geraldsmission was to safeguard theirfaith by bringing the Mass andSacraments to them. Most of hisnon Catholic neighbourswelcomed him, but not all. Hishouse had his living quarters onthe ground floor and a smallchapel upstairs. A cross waserected and set ablaze at hismission. The burning cross is awell known Ku Klux Klan

signature. It was a reminder thatthe KKK had moved on from itspost Civil War days being anti-black, to being anti-Catholic andanti-Jew as well.

He was averaging 60,000 miles ayear driving. After Tennessee hewas assigned to Hitchcock,Oklahoma, to a small community,98% German. They all spokeGerman and English. They wereexceptionally good Catholics. Infour years, he never heard amortal sin in confession. They

were all farmers. Several of theolder ones had the original landbought from the Government as itopened for sale. The governmenthad confiscated the land from theNative Americans and settlersreceived a parcel of a givennumber of acres. There werentmany paved roads and in winterthe wheat fields would get

crusted with ice. Parishionerswould cross the fields on hayracks bundled with children andblankets to get to church. If thechurch needed any kind ofmaintenance or repair, theywould fix it. Their conservativeand old customs were observed.In the church, the little boys satwith their fathers on the Gospel

side, whilst the little girls werewith their mothers on the side ofthe Epistle. In the parish hall, thewomen would be one side doingquilting and knitting, and the menwould be on the other pipesmoking and playing pinnacle. Onhis first visit to the parish hall,Father Gerald made the mistakeof walking to the womens side tosay hello. A man touched him on


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the shoulder and said, You

belong up here with the men.

Different customs prevailed inCamden, Mississippi, Father

Geralds next assignment. It wasa split parish. The white parishwas the Immaculate Conception.The black mission was the SacredHeart. Father Geralds commentsare recorded in the Interview,some paragraphs of which I havereproduced below:

There was definitely a very

strong sense of bigotry. That wasthe reason the black kids couldnot go to the white schools. Thesheriff was very rough on theblack people. Father MalcolmOLeary,a black priest, joined theSociety of Divine Word. He hadgone to high school and grew upin that little village. Everyoneknew him. He used to mow lawns

and the people knew his parentsand grandparents. When he wasordained, we had a bigcelebration on Sunday at SacredHeart. However, on Monday,when he celebrated his first Massin the white parish, only five orsix people attended. His whitefriends, people who had knownhim all his life, wouldnt go to his

Mass. And they refused to servehim breakfast afterwards. It wasa way of life with all thosegenerations. But, if black peoplegot sick, the white people wouldbring them medicines and makesure they were okay.

The order built the only blackCatholic school in the diocese andin the whole state of Mississippi.The Ursulines were the ones who

taught there. In the Catholicschool, the tuition was very small,seven dollars, books included.But psychologically, the idea ofpaying gave people a sense of

dignity and independence. As inall Catholic schools, the kids woreuniforms very simple ones thatmost of the mothers made out ofcotton.

What I would like to mention isthe indebted gratitude we owethe Ursuline Sisters. They cameout of Louisville, Kentucky, and

they were a community dedicatedto the education of girls infinishing schools and academies,and they felt that they should dosome missionary work. Theyvolunteered and stayed there forforty-seven years and all duringthat time they never took a pennysalary or expense money forutilities or food. It was great what

that Order did. Their MotherHouse took care of them. None ofthe Sisters, as far as I know,were stationed there. They wereall volunteers. The MotherGeneral would ask who wouldvolunteer to go to ruralMississippi and work with blackpeople and thats how theyreplaced them as the years went

on, but no one was ordered to gothere on assignment. They shouldget some tribute. Too bad thatover the ages the people havenever recognised what we owethem.

To come up to date, Sacred Heartwas closed and Immaculate


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Conception came to serve Catholicsirrespective of colour. ThenImmaculate Conception was closed.A new church and parish centreopened in March 2007, called Sacred

Heart, comprising a 200 seat church,conference room, kitchen, gym,games room and fitness centre. Itopened a few months before FatherGerald died.

Father Geraldsassignment pathcontinued in Virginia, Kentucky,and Mississippi. He was auxiliarychaplain in the naval base atColonial Beach, Virginia. At St

Pius, Norfolk, Virginia, there weremaybe 1,600 families 80%Navy personnel. They wereexcellent Catholics, very orderlyand systematic, generous andhard workers.

Father Gerald was a very sociableman, loved debate, loved to getpeople talking, singing, reciting

poems. On the other hand he was28 years alone. Asked aboutcooking, he said he was strictly ameat and potatoes man.

This photograph is of FatherGerald on the left on vacation inEngland with his brother Mike andhis sister-in-law Ivy, my mother.It was at a concert of their

cousin, my uncle, Tom Kneafcy-Swift, the English National Operatenor, July 12th, 1973.

In America, on his long trips,

Father Gerald would sometimestake nephews and nieces alongfor experience for them andcompany for him. I have a tale ofan early visit he made to Englandand his tour in a car he had hired.On this occasion he took mybrother David. We only discussedthe trip when he came back towhere we lived. British cars then

still had chokes and nobody hadtold Father Gerald: he had had ahard time starting the car everymorning. Also, our cars hadmanual gear shifts: the pedalswere small and close togetherand there too many gears! Theyhad visited Stonehenge, the worldfamous Neolithic monument inWiltshire. Like many of his

generation Father Gerald was asmoker. He was disappointedthere were no souvenir ashtraysfor sale at Stonehenge. Tobaccobrings me by way of theOklahoma peace pipe to thesubject of flags.

Starting with Ireland, NorthernIreland used to have the UlsterBanner as its state flag. This wasdropped in 1972 when the UK

Government put the NorthernIreland Government on hold. It is


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well, but by nothing so wellknown as the battle flag.

Attitudes change. The Oklahomapipe of peace introduced in this

piece the issue of smokingtobacco. When Oklahoma becamethe 46thstate of the Union in1907, tobacco was perceived as agood thing. It had long been seenas a comfort or as health-giving.In plague stricken London in1603, at the coronation of KingJames I, smoking tobacco wasone of the things that might save

you. In 1609 there was referenceto the smoky breath of theShakespearean theatre audience.

British soldiers in the First World

War sang, While youve a Lucifer to

light your fag, smile boys thats the

style. In the early 1970s a young

mannot much older than meon

the next desk to me at work,

smoked a pipe. He was a traineesolicitor and a musician. His doctor

had recommended the pipe for his

nerves. When he started smoking,

Father Gerald would have known

only these positive perceptions of

smoking. We are becoming so PC

sensitive now. I wonder how longMississippi will be able to keep

the Confederate battle-flag in itsown flags canton, or even howlong Oklahoma will be able tokeep a tobacco pipe on its stateflag. (On October 27th, theUniversity of Mississippi tookdown the states flag on itscampus).

I started this story in Mayo in the

1870s. What happened as a resultof the Land League? By 1914,

75% of occupiers were buying outtheir landlords, mostly underlegislation initiated by the LandLeague. In all over 316,000tenants purchased their holdings

amounting to 15 million acres(61,000 km2) out of a total of20 million acres (81,000 km2) inthe country. Sometimes theholdings were described as"uneconomic", but the overallsense of social justice prevailed.You could say this happenedwithin the 40 year lifetime ofFather Geralds mother, Ellen.

What happened as a result of theApparition? The pilgrimages,papal visit on the centenary, thebasilica, the airport. I supposeFather Gerald and the rest of uswould have come back anyway,but it makes Knock a specialplace to visit.

About 100 family membersgathered in Virginia tocelebrate the 60th Anniversary ofFather Geralds ordination to thepriesthood. Here he is with someof them.

The family donated money to theMissionary Servants to build asmall church at one of theirmissions in Mexico. The churchwas named St. Bartholomew. Sothe name of Father Cavanagh of

Knock has found its way to


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Mexico! This is an artistsimpression of the church.

Father Gerald had retired to theFather Judge Missionary Cenacle

in Adelphi, Maryland, which hehad helped design and build. Itwas designed to be a big familyhome rather than an institution.One time after his brother Mikedied, my mother, my wife and Iwere guests there of FatherGerald. We met again his friendand co-designer, Father BobShay. You could tell Father

Geralds car: it had an Erin goBragh badge at the front.

Father Gerald had given me twobooks of Irish songs in the pastand he asked me to sing one ortwo on that visit. It would be thelast time I saw him. He askedalso for a Scottish song,TheRoad and the Miles to Dundee.Its a beautiful tune withintriguing lyrics. Having similartaste in songs, I could see why heliked it. Like Father Gerald in hiscountry, I had travelled to jobs allover my own, including Dundee,though nothing like his 60,000miles in a year. Yet I didnt knowthe words to The Road and theMiles, as you will hear the titleabbreviated in Scotland.

It was much later, when I readthe words and found all theverses, that I realised just howappropriate the words were. Thesinger encounters a mysteryyoung woman. She looks like anangel and wants to be helped onher way. He goes out of his wayto help. He walks with her untilthey can see in full view thechurch spires of Dundee. Theypart. In the last verse he exhortslisteners not to be unwillingliterally to go along with someoneto help them find their way, if its

only to show her the road toDundee.Now isnt that FatherGerald? A man who knew theroad and the miles, and whowould go the extra mile.

Father Gerald died 12June 2007, aged 91.His relations in theUSA and in England

are grateful to GerryRuane for proposingthis tribute; to Glr

Achadh Mr for making it possible;and to Peter Crean for clarifying the

links between us all. These are theprayers Father Gerald chose forhis memorial service:


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Love a man even in his sin,

For that is the semblance

Of a Divine Love

And the highest love on earth.

Dostoevski

Help me Lord

The sea is so wide

And

My boat is so small.

Breton Fishermans prayer

I pray that one day

We shall all meet together

Merrily in heaven.

St Thomas Moore

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The Extra Mile: The Life and Times of Father Gerald Swift