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| Anno 1815 From the Epitaph of Fr Andrew Hart, St Mary's, Saggart |
A Little Historic Moment
Two years ago, on Sunday 22 November 2015, the bicentenary was marked of the death of Fr Andrew Hart, P.P. of the ‘United Parishes of Saggart, Rathcoole and Newcastle Lyons’ (d. 20 November 1815, aged 30). Since the Mass that morning happened to be a children’s Communion Preparation Mass, the talk delivered by Donal McMahon had to be adapted for a young audience, with the emphasis being put on the 'man on the wall' (see the report here). On Sunday 19th this year, the day before his anniversary, Fr Hart’s life was again recalled, this time for grown-ups. On this occasion the focus was the address (in Latin) given to the students in Maynooth the day after Fr Hart’s funeral by Louis Delahogue, the French-born Professor of Theology who had taught him there, had known him there later as Dean, and who had attended his funeral. This address was now heard for the first time in English more than two hundred years later in Fr Hart's own parish church, not far away from the site of his burial, a site distinguished, as we know, by a fine life-sized effigy.
Andrew Hart and Louis Gilles Delahogue
