THE YEAR of 1932 will be forever associated in Ireland with the International Eucharistic Congress, a joyous event by all accounts.
However, the year was a bad one in the Cosgrave household.
William T Cosgrave, the country’s first leader, lost power in February 1932 after 10 years to his party’s mortal enemies in Fianna Fáil, led by Eamon de Valera.
It was a bitter blow for Cosgrave who had set his heart on being president, then the equivalent of taoiseach, during the week of the Eucharistic Congress, which happened at the end of June that year.
His son and former taoiseach Liam Cosgrave was a surprise attendee at a gathering yesterday of people who were at the original event.
Now a sprightly 92, Cosgrave recalled the event with pride rather than any sense of regret.
“It was important for the State that we could do it and do it well,” he said. “It meant an awful lot to the country. Remember we were only 10 years with self-government. There was a great turnout of Army and Garda and helpers. It was very well organised.”
Mr Cosgrave was a 12-year-old schoolboy in Synge Street school. He remembered walking up to the Phoenix Park for a Mass for schoolboys and schoolgirls.
It was followed by the culmination of the celebrations on the Sunday in the Phoenix Park, when 500,000 people attended Mass, which was broadcast on the radio, a first for Ireland.
He recalled a “sea of faces and figures of people totally united together in a wonderful movement” which created “an outstanding opinion” of the new State. His most salient memory was hearing Count John McCormack sing Panis Angelicus – a performance he described as “remarkable”.
Some 300 people who witnessed the first Eucharistic Congress attended an event at the Green Isle Hotel outside Dublin to reminisce over an event which defined a generation and which many remembered as if it happened yesterday.
Master of ceremonies Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh (81) quipped that there were not many events where he was the youngest person in the room.
A Radharc film was shown with archive footage of the event which depicted a week of joy for the then devoutly Catholic country. It attracted 350,000 foreign visitors, although there were only four hotels worthy of the name in Dublin at the time.
Some 300 miles of bunting were ordered for Leinster alone and the whole country joined in the devotional fervour, “even the Protestants”, according to one participant quoted in the documentary.
The sun shone all week and the pubs and shops all stayed open.
Kathleen Bunyan (89), from Kerry recalled how her grandfather was convicted in 1867 of being a founder member of the Fenians but escaped before he could be transported to Van Diemen’s Land.
She spent half a crown on a mantilla to wear to the Phoenix Park Mass when her first wage was just 10 shillings a week.
The manifestation of the faith was what she remembered most about the week. “I want Ireland to remain Gaelic and Catholic and I will fight until I die for that,” she said, to applause.
Eamonn Doogue (92), from Carlow, recalled the time of the train that took him to the Mass in the Phoenix Park (9.30am). Local people put up bunting “day or night” before the week of the Eucharistic Congress.
Una Mangan, also 92, was part of a special choir from St Louis Convent in Rathmines who provided vocal support for McCormack.
They were a year rehearsing for the event and were only told that the person they would be singing with was “very important”.
Patricia Gill was only 2½ when she was brought to the Phoenix Park. She remembers nothing of it but has been constantly reminded to this day that she spent the Mass shouting “Patsy wants her Putney pie”.
All of those who attended the International Eucharistic Congress in 1932 will be guaranteed tickets for the final-day Mass in Croke Park on Sunday, June 17th. The congress takes place from June 10th- 17th.
