Page 75 - Tunes from Brenda Stubbert's New CD/tape IN JIG TIME; Puirt a Baroque's BACH MEETS CAPE BRETON; Carl MacKenzie's CAPE BRETON FIDDLE MEDLEYS

ISSUE : Issue 70

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1996/6/1

Ashley Maclsaac's Reel Brenda Stubbert 'tr A Reel for Kate David Greenberg m 'rrn. h • im #JTTl. nTI [Tn, rrn prr??''' • i The Lindsay Fiddle Carl MacKenzie Tunes from Brenda Stubbert's new CD/tape IN JIG TIME; Puirt a Baroque's BACH MEETS CAPE BRETON; and Carl MacKenzie's CAPE BRETON FIDDLE MEDLEYS. Transcriptions by Paul Cranford. More about Fr. Donald MacPherson ( also MARY ANN MacEACHERN pages 37-52 ) From "Lofty" MacMillan's new book THE BOY FROM PORT HOOD FATHER DONALD MacPHERSON was our parish priest at St. Peter's in Port Hood. He had been a cha? plain in the First Worid War. He was the only clergy? man of any denomination not to wear a khaki shirt and tie. He had permission to wear the Roman collar, and he was with the Nova Scotia Twenty-Fifth Batta? lion as chaplain. In the Nova Scotia War Book, there's a picture of him on the battiefield. It says, "Reverend Donald MacPherson, chaplain, Twenty-Fifth battal- lion, crawling under shot and shell administering to the dying." The soldiers who served with him said he was the most fearless man whom they had ever met. There was no fear in him at all.... He was very much anti-alcohol, tremendously so.... They claimed it came about because he administered as a young priest to a dying drunk, and they say whatever took place at the time resulted in his hatred of liquor. If there's such a thing as a relationship between the Holy Spirit and all the rest that goes about it there, it led him to that hatred.... Father MacPherson had such a great influence on everybody. He was a joke- ster as well. He loved stories. He loved to create something. In one week he would gather all the old people in one house on the shore road or in other areas for a mass and communion and then breakfast. He'd sit around with them and he was in his glory. When everything was over, the stories would be told, and he'd put the twist on them himself later on. If he had heard a good one, he'd dress it up and make it much better. It was a great place to go for the old peo? ple in those days. If you hit Port Hood around five o'clock, you were sure to get supper at Father MacPherson's.... People from home living in Boston and New York would send him money to wrm have him come and spend a vacation with them. When Prohibition ended in Nova Scotia, each community had to vote whether it wanted to go wet or dry. He was going on one of these trips to visit Port Hooders away in the States. The vote in Port Hood was go? ing to be taken when he was away. Be? fore leaving, he said, "If the vote goes wet, I won't be back." Ninety-seven percent "dry" when the vote was taken. They all voted dry! They didn't want to lose him, the old fellow!... He was very close with the Protestants. He used to know a minister by the name of Reverend Wright who was the leader of the Temperance League in Nova Scotia, and they used to travel together. They were sort of hquor inspectors, and they could do anything, seize liquor and stills. Over in Glendale, when he first got out of the army, he was parish priest there. They had a name for him in Gaelic, 'The Protestant Priest," be? cause he was going around with this other minister.... When he celebrated his 50th anniversary, the Protestant people gave him a gold coal hod and shovel.... I think that was Christianity at its best. Published by New Ireland Press, THE BOY FROM PORT HOOD: The Autobiography of John Francis "Lofty" MacMillan is available in stores everywhere, or with the Order Form on the next page. 194 pages • $15.95 (plus GST and shipping) ??hii.c ORDER FORM AND MORE GOOD BOOKS on next page.

Cape Breton's Magazine