Fr Leonard Coughlan:FR LEONARD COUGHLAN of the Capuchin Friary in Church Street has died. He was born in 1914 in Macroom, the second youngest of nine. One of his earliest memories was "an itinerant woman giving flowers to Michael Collins outside a hotel in Macroom" the day before his death at Béal na mBláth.
He boarded at the Capuchin school in Rochestown before joining the order. The novitiate training regime was tough; bed at 10pm, up at midnight and up again at 6am. Once he went to the master of novitiates because he wanted to leave, he was advised to go to bed and come back if he felt the same way the next morning. He did a BA in UCC, followed by a stint in Creeslough, Donegal; a great spot for fishing, his childhood pastime.
He had a story about going fishing with two older boys one Sunday, skipping Mass. A maternal interrogation on his return home was met with a very rational: “Sure I’ll get two Masses next Sunday”. Leonard arrived at the Friary in Church Street in 1941, in the depressed and impoverished wartime era. He immediately began various community projects, establishing a waste-paper sales business to buy clothes for local families and a toy manufacturing business to employ local people with disabilities.
Spiritually, he led many missions and retreats in Ireland and abroad. This was tough work; arriving at strange places, often alone, long hours of preaching and visiting the sick. He was sometimes kept going from 6am till midnight.
He served as “Guardian” in Church Street and then as “Definitor” of the order. He revamped the insolvent Fr Mathew Hall and established Feis Maitiu, a national annual festival of music, drama and poetry. Several prominent musicians such as Geraldine O’Grady and John O’Conor emerged from the festival.
Leonard also worked in RTÉ, doing nightly spiritual talks. He was involved in the Family Solidarity movement and the Temperance movement. He contributed regular letters to The Irish Timeson these issues, as well as the issue of female participation in politics, which he advocated strongly. He founded Alert, a drink and drugs awareness campaign. Hundreds came to take the "Fr Mathew pledge". On one such occasion, when Leonard asked a man how long he wished to take it for, he replied "Sure I always take it for life".
Leonard knew Father Aloysius in Church Street, the Capuchin who attended the executed leaders of the 1916 Rising. He collected his first-hand accounts which gave “a strong spiritual insight into the 1916 leaders”. This was broadcast during the memorial week in 1966 and he subsequently produced two documentaries, in which he was “careful to present a balanced and fair account” of both sides.
Leonard said daily Mass throughout his life, attended by his good friend Peggy Farrelly every morning. He was the only Capuchin to remain in the one friary throughout his 70-year career.
To be in Leonard’s company was a treat; he relished storytelling. With a glint in his eye and a sprightliness in his posture, he transported you back in time. The stillness of old age made him reflective, sometimes bemused at modern life, occasionally nostalgic. In his latter years, despite his strict Capuchin training, he softened into a very affectionate, loving and attentive man. On every visit, he would chart meticulously my latest news and that of my siblings, his concern for others always at the fore.
He spoke frankly, but un-selfpityingly, about old age, describing his physical slowing “like the wheels of an old machine” with a kind of objectivity. As a spiritual man, he knew that was just the body. He rarely preached, but we would always end each visit with an embrace as he whispered the Our Father in my ear and the words “You are very sacred to me”.
– COM
