Chapter Nine - ‘The Philosophy and Beliefs of the Fanning Family’
(Mother, Mary Fanning: Father, John Fanning: Daughter, Mary Fanning)
Ever since marriage to his sweetheart in 1977, Mary’s father, John Fanning, secretly hoped what all good Catholic parents in Ireland have hoped for since time immemorial; namely that their firstborn takes Holy Orders. Had his oldest child been a boy, John Fanning hoped that his son would one day enter the priesthood, or if a girl, that she would enter a convent and become a Holy Sister and a Bride of Christ.
According to Irish superstition and old wives’ tales he’d grown up with, it was generally accepted that the parents of any family whose firstborn entered Religious Orders to become either priest or nun would be forever blessed and fall under the protection of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.
In olden days, it was widely believed in all Irish Catholic homes that a firstborn child taking Holy Orders, entitled the parent/parents who had encouraged such vocation of that child, to get a substantial number of days knocked off their time in Purgatory; a sort of ‘time off’ one’s sentence for good behaviour. Whether true or false, the veracity of this old wives’ tale was always believed by John Fanning and was never disavowed by the parish priest.
Hence, believing himself to be the head of the household, and probably more religious and Godfearing than his wife, John Fanning took primary charge of ensuring that his children would be brought up as good Catholics. Naturally, after the birth of his firstborn, he became concerned that Mary jumped all the required hoops of her Roman Catholic upbringing, like ‘Making her First Confession’, and her ‘First Holy Communion’ and preparing for ‘Confirmation’ as soon as she was ready.
He considered the furthering of his daughter in the Catholic faith as being too great a responsibility to trust to his wife alone. So, as head of a Catholic household, he took it upon himself to ensure that Mary, along with all her siblings, attended Sunday Mass and all Holy Days of Obligation, come rain, hail, or shine.
Before Mary had left the private school aged seven and a half, she’d already made her ‘First Confession’ and had taken her ‘First Holy Communion’. Once made, her father encouraged the regular observance of these two sacraments. He didn’t relax in his responsibilities of overseeing the welfare of her soul until Mary had taken the sacrament of ‘Confirmation’ at the age of 11 years.
Only then, did John Fanning consider the bulk of his duties of being a good Catholic father as having been properly discharged. Whatever sin his daughter committed in future, while he would naturally disapprove, he considered it would be she who’d pay the price on the final day of judgement! He’d placed Mary on the right tracks; and it was her Catholic duty to stay on them!
While John Fanning had always secretly hoped that his oldest daughter Mary would one day adopt Holy Orders and become a nun, the older she got, the less likely that course of action seemed. As Mary entered her teens, the more independent of mind she became and the less nun material she seemed to be.
According to Irish superstition and old wives’ tales he’d grown up with, it was generally accepted that the parents of any family whose firstborn entered Religious Orders to become either priest or nun would be forever blessed and fall under the protection of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.
In olden days, it was widely believed in all Irish Catholic homes that a firstborn child taking Holy Orders, entitled the parent/parents who had encouraged such vocation of that child, to get a substantial number of days knocked off their time in Purgatory; a sort of ‘time off’ one’s sentence for good behaviour. Whether true or false, the veracity of this old wives’ tale was always believed by John Fanning and was never disavowed by the parish priest.
Hence, believing himself to be the head of the household, and probably more religious and Godfearing than his wife, John Fanning took primary charge of ensuring that his children would be brought up as good Catholics. Naturally, after the birth of his firstborn, he became concerned that Mary jumped all the required hoops of her Roman Catholic upbringing, like ‘Making her First Confession’, and her ‘First Holy Communion’ and preparing for ‘Confirmation’ as soon as she was ready.
He considered the furthering of his daughter in the Catholic faith as being too great a responsibility to trust to his wife alone. So, as head of a Catholic household, he took it upon himself to ensure that Mary, along with all her siblings, attended Sunday Mass and all Holy Days of Obligation, come rain, hail, or shine.
Before Mary had left the private school aged seven and a half, she’d already made her ‘First Confession’ and had taken her ‘First Holy Communion’. Once made, her father encouraged the regular observance of these two sacraments. He didn’t relax in his responsibilities of overseeing the welfare of her soul until Mary had taken the sacrament of ‘Confirmation’ at the age of 11 years.
Only then, did John Fanning consider the bulk of his duties of being a good Catholic father as having been properly discharged. Whatever sin his daughter committed in future, while he would naturally disapprove, he considered it would be she who’d pay the price on the final day of judgement! He’d placed Mary on the right tracks; and it was her Catholic duty to stay on them!
While John Fanning had always secretly hoped that his oldest daughter Mary would one day adopt Holy Orders and become a nun, the older she got, the less likely that course of action seemed. As Mary entered her teens, the more independent of mind she became and the less nun material she seemed to be.
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It was her mother’s romantic nature and her strong belief in one’s fate and destiny being ruled by the stars that held greater sway with young Mary during her teenage years.
Ever since Mary’s early childhood, her mother had always impressed on her oldest child, the belief that our fate lay in the alignment of the stars, and however much we willed it otherwise, nothing could change our destiny that the heavens had mapped out for each of us.
Her mother believed that the time, place, and nature of our entry into the world; along with our involvement in it and departure from it, was predetermined by astrological alignment and other heavenly forces. She also believed that every major decision, every action taken and every event that impacts upon us, is governed from the heavens above.
Ever since Mary’s early childhood, her mother had always impressed on her oldest child, the belief that our fate lay in the alignment of the stars, and however much we willed it otherwise, nothing could change our destiny that the heavens had mapped out for each of us.
Her mother believed that the time, place, and nature of our entry into the world; along with our involvement in it and departure from it, was predetermined by astrological alignment and other heavenly forces. She also believed that every major decision, every action taken and every event that impacts upon us, is governed from the heavens above.
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With the passing of each year, the daughter of John and Mary Fanning became more of a realist than either her mother or her father were or could ever be. Young Mary always retained a part of her mother’s belief in one’s fate and destiny being predetermined, along with the shared secret between mother and daughter about the ‘Romany’s prophecy’ of her ‘specialness’.
It seemed to matter less to young Mary whether it was God or the Heavens that ruled the planet, so long as everyone born into this world lived a wholesome existence in a spirit of peace and generosity, tolerance, compassion, and understanding. The only other thing Mary thought mattered in determining one’s future was that all star gazers, romantics and dreamers recognised their moment when it came along and seized it with open arms! This was the type of philosophy that she could wholly subscribe to and happily live by.
Mary Fanning grew into womanhood with the firm belief that we all get one chance in this life to meet and be with the man or woman of our dreams. She believed that anyone who is prepared to reach out, will, one day, touch the star of their destiny and bring their dream a little closer to reality.
Mary loved with an innocent ease that any angel would have been proud to possess. She believed that we are each born with the capacity to love one another, and that the first principle of humanity was to do no harm to man or beast.
She believed that without the inclination and opportunity to express one’s love freely, and to feel the experience of being loved in return, we are but mere beings existing without a purpose in a lost world of ever increasing darkness.
As a child, growing up in Clonmel the phrase most quoted to her by her mother was ‘Carpe diem’; seize the moment!
It seemed to matter less to young Mary whether it was God or the Heavens that ruled the planet, so long as everyone born into this world lived a wholesome existence in a spirit of peace and generosity, tolerance, compassion, and understanding. The only other thing Mary thought mattered in determining one’s future was that all star gazers, romantics and dreamers recognised their moment when it came along and seized it with open arms! This was the type of philosophy that she could wholly subscribe to and happily live by.
Mary Fanning grew into womanhood with the firm belief that we all get one chance in this life to meet and be with the man or woman of our dreams. She believed that anyone who is prepared to reach out, will, one day, touch the star of their destiny and bring their dream a little closer to reality.
Mary loved with an innocent ease that any angel would have been proud to possess. She believed that we are each born with the capacity to love one another, and that the first principle of humanity was to do no harm to man or beast.
She believed that without the inclination and opportunity to express one’s love freely, and to feel the experience of being loved in return, we are but mere beings existing without a purpose in a lost world of ever increasing darkness.
As a child, growing up in Clonmel the phrase most quoted to her by her mother was ‘Carpe diem’; seize the moment!
~~~~~
The philosophy that Mary Fanning’s daughter came to eventually hold as she approached her 22nd year of life, didn’t suddenly emerge after the reading of some Christian, Psychological or Astrological book or magazine article. Neither did it come from the teachings of any educational establishment she ever attended.
Young Mary’s philosophy came from the experiential heart of pain and pleasure; it came from the core of religious dogma and romantic escapism, and it travelled between glimpses of biblical past and prophetic future.
Mary’s philosophy had been moulded three generations ago when her Grandfather, Mick Lanigan had married his wife, Lizzy Forde, in 1955 and set up home in Portlaw, County Waterford.
Lizzy Lanigan had shaped and fashioned her philosophy of life, and passed it down to her oldest daughter, Mary Lanigan, in the 1960s, and she in turn had passed it down to her oldest daughter and firstborn, Mary Fanning, in the 1980s.
For the first two decades of Mary Fanning’s life, this rainbow philosophy had filtered through to form her prevailing beliefs and practices. The creed that governed Mary at the age of twenty-two had been sieved and drained from a cauldron containing Catholicism, Romanticism, Astrology, and Realism; all of which were given birth in the stars of heaven, had been forged in the fires of hell, and tempered in the well of redemption; before being served up in the experience of hardship and heartbreak in the immediate years ahead.
Life’s cruellest of circumstances was the cause of turning Mary Fanning’s life into stern reality. She was to learn through hardship and heart-breaking experience that people who follow the rainbow eventually must deal with the rain!
Young Mary’s philosophy came from the experiential heart of pain and pleasure; it came from the core of religious dogma and romantic escapism, and it travelled between glimpses of biblical past and prophetic future.
Mary’s philosophy had been moulded three generations ago when her Grandfather, Mick Lanigan had married his wife, Lizzy Forde, in 1955 and set up home in Portlaw, County Waterford.
Lizzy Lanigan had shaped and fashioned her philosophy of life, and passed it down to her oldest daughter, Mary Lanigan, in the 1960s, and she in turn had passed it down to her oldest daughter and firstborn, Mary Fanning, in the 1980s.
For the first two decades of Mary Fanning’s life, this rainbow philosophy had filtered through to form her prevailing beliefs and practices. The creed that governed Mary at the age of twenty-two had been sieved and drained from a cauldron containing Catholicism, Romanticism, Astrology, and Realism; all of which were given birth in the stars of heaven, had been forged in the fires of hell, and tempered in the well of redemption; before being served up in the experience of hardship and heartbreak in the immediate years ahead.
Life’s cruellest of circumstances was the cause of turning Mary Fanning’s life into stern reality. She was to learn through hardship and heart-breaking experience that people who follow the rainbow eventually must deal with the rain!
