PRESENTATION TO THE REV. M. RYAN, HOLY CROSS COLLEGE

New Zealand Tablet, 3 February 1910, Page 183

PRESENTATION TO THE REV. M. RYAN, HOLY CROSS COLLEGE

At the conclusion of the diocesan retreat at Holy Cross College, Mosgiel, on Friday, the clergy present took the opportunity of presenting an address and a purse of sovereigns to the Rev. M. Ryan, who has been connected with the college for a period ten years, and for the past three has filled the office of Rector, and who is returning to his native archdiocese of Cashel. The following is the text of an artistically illuminated address which was read by the Right Rev. Mgr. Mackay: Rev. and Dear Father, — ‘ It was with feelings of deep regret that we, your fellow-priests _of the diocese of Dunedin, heard some time ago of your intention to leave us when the period of ten years, for which you had volunteered, had elapsed. All of us have had, on many occasions, experience of your generous hospitality and your warm geniality, and have learnt to admire your straightforwardness and your kindly good nature; while many of us have found in you a true and trusted friend. Your work for the past ten years in the building up of the Ecclesiastical Seminary of New Zealand is well known and highly appreciated by us, and it must have been a source of great satisfaction to you to see your long and laborious efforts crowned in the recent ordination of our first priests. We had hoped that at the end of your term you would have seen your way to remain in the diocese, but, much as we feel your loss, we recognise at the same time the strength of the ties that bind you to your own diocese of Cashel and to the Old Land. As a token of our appreciation of your work amongst us and of our sincere regard, we ask you to accept the accompanying purse of sovereigns, with our best wishes and prayers for your future happiness and success. ‘Signed on behalf of the*,priests of the diocese of Dunedin, * ‘John Mackay, V.G. Patrick O’Leary, V.F. James Coffey, Secretary.’ Right Rev. Monsignor Mackay, Rev. Fathers O’Donnell (Queenstown), Murphy, Coffey, and Hunt bore testimony to Father Ryan’s worth and work, expressed regret at his departure, and wished him every happiness and success in his new sphere of duties in the Old Land. Rev. Father Ryan, in replying, said:—lt is with no ordinary feelings that I attempt to respond to the flattering things that have been said by Father O’Donnell and Father Murphy, and the very generous expressions contained in the address. I am deeply touched and gratified by the double tribute of goodwill and esteem that has been made to me this morning more deeply than I can express in words. lam also very grateful for the testimonial which accompanied the address. lam not so vain, I hope, as to suppose that I am endowed with all the fine qualities attributed to me by the Rev. Fathers who have spoken. It is the kindness and generosity of their own hearts that make them assign them to me. Any hospitality or other kindness that I have been able to show my fellow-priests and I wish, I had been able to show more— but a very small return for their many kindnesses to me since I came amongst them. From the first day I arrived in Dunedin, when I was met by the ever-kind Father Murphy, to the ■present I have never experienced anything but the utmost kindness from the priests of this diocese. When I arrived in Dunedin the diocese was then, as you . know, under the administratorship of Monsignor Mackay, and he in his kind-

ness to me and in his knowledge of the man to whom he was' sending me, appointed me as assistant to Father O’Donnell, of Queenstown, and it is, under God, owing perhaps to his fatherly and fostering care that I enjoy the health I do to-day; for at a time when I was in anything but robust health I was as well cared for by Father O’Donnell as if I was in my own home in the “Old Land. This great kindness of Father O’Donnell shall never be forgotten by me; and I may, without mentioning names, say the same of all the other priests of the diocese whose hospitality to me has been ever bountiful. In the address you express your regret at my leaving the diocese. There is, of course, a joy and a pleasure in returning to one’s native land; everyone must feel that, for the man who forgets or is untrue to his country cannot be true to any cause, but all the same I assure you, dear Fathers, that I leave with a good deal of regret and even sorrow. Reference has also been made to my work in connection with the college. Well, all I can say is that I have done my best, and no man can do more. However, the greater part, if not all, of the success of the collegel speak, of course, only in so far as the staff is concernedis due to ■ those who have been working with me, and I have been very happy in having my lot cast among such priests as have been in the college from the beginning, commencing with the first vice-president, the lamented Father John Ryan, than whom there was no more amiable or more genial priest in any diocese. Then came Fathers Delany and .P. O’Neill, and the present staff, with whom it is a pleasure and an honor to be associated. And I take this opportunity of congratulating Father Liston on his promotion to the Rectorship of the College. It is only those who have worked and lived with Father Liston as I have for some years who can know and appreciate the noble qualities he possesses. I also return my sincere thanks to the Rev. Father Hunt, C.SS.R., for the kind words he lias spoken of me on behalf of himself and his Order. It has ever bee*n a pleasure to me to render any assistance I could to any member of that distinguished Order., Some of you, I suppose, I will not again see in this life; blit many of you, I hope, will some day visit Ireland, and if you do there is no priest in this diocese who will not receive a f hearty and generous welcome from me. I will conclude in i the not altogether inappropriate, but the perhaps somewhat unorthodox, words of Moore: * Ah, well may we hope when this short life is done To meet in a land of more permanent bliss; For a smile and a clasp of the hand hast’ning on Is all we enjoy of each other in this.’