Page 3 - With Mungie MacNeil of Iona Rear

ISSUE : Issue 59

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1992/1/1

I'll go and keep house for you." It was kind of in my mind, you know, but he didn't mean it.... (Did you want to be a house? keeper like that, for a priest?) Yeah. I thought it would be nice to look after them, you know. I knew they were working hard, and that it was hard for them to get some? body that would look after them and.... It is hard. It's not easy at ; all. It's easy in one way. But| you have to be on your toes | all the time. People coming to I the door, looking for money, - whether the priest is in or not. And you don't know who comes to the door, but you have to answer them and you have to look after the phone tually easy, you know. Some of the priests Mungie worlteci with: Fr. Michael J. MacKinnon (above, courtesy St. F. X. Archives), Fr. Alphonse Doyle (above right), and Fr. John Archie Chlsholm It's not ac- And then a lot of visiting priests, and you don't know just when they're coming, and you have to have something ready to feed them at dinner or whatever it is. And I was young, you know. But I got along fine. (The first priest you were with, did he sit down and tell you what your job would be?) No. "Just look after me"--that's all --"Give me a bite to eat when I need it!" Mungie chuckles. I was with him for 16 years, I think, at Passchendaele. And then the bishop--he did a lot of Extension work, you know what I mean? (Other than working in the church itself?) Yeah. Well, it was getting the people to do things for themselves--like co-operators and things like that. And the bishop wanted them to go around and tell the people about this. He was a very clev? er priest, Fr. MacKinnon. Michael J. Mac? Kinnon. His home was in Sydney Mines. And then he did that around the parish for quite awhile, and then the bishop decided he was going to take him up to the College (St. Francis Xavier in Antigonish). And he was to do the work there. So, I was 16 years with him then.... And then, they were opening the College of Cape Breton in Sydney at that time (Xavier Junior College, at that time). And there was a Dr. Mac- Lellan--he was a good friend of Fr. MacKinnon's. And he asked Fr. MacKinnon if I'd come and look after the priests. They'd got a house over in Westmount. And there were about 5 priests teaching at the Col? lege then. And he was the head fellow. Dr. MacLellan. So. Well, I said okay. Fr. MacKinnon was going to Antigonish anyway; he'd be leaving there. So he didn't need a housekeeper. (Well, didn't need a housekeeper is one thing. But when you've lived together with ''' '' Ice Cream Company Ltd. Cape Breton Shopping Plaza Sydney River, N. S. , 539-0424 ITte Jimst Ice Cream Made 9{ere "EspeciaCCij for O'ou OPEN 7 Days a Week ICE CREAM PARLOUR and BAKERY brake service drums & rotors resurfaced 2&4 wheel alignment including 1-ton trucks and motor homes computerized engine analysis and tune up (DISCO TIRE only) DISCO TIRCltd. 539-4070 CANSO TIRE PORT HAWKESBURY LTD. 625-3125

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