"Father O'Flynn"

NZ Truth, Issue 1206, 10 January 1929, Page 6

"Father O'Flynn"

WHEN it comes to bright, cheery optimism and unbounded energy

m well-doing, Father O'Flynn has got old Grandpa Kruschen whacked to the wide. ■ . This is not a skit upon, two mythical albeit very popular persons. Father O'Flynn actually moves and has his being- at' Frankton Junction- — that twenty-four-hour a day, busy bustling centre of rail way dom. He has not yet been accused of "lifting the lazy ones. on wid a stick" — and if he did he'd get away with, it — but. m all other respects his parishioners avow he is the living counterpart of the lovable old priest of ballad and story. Now this is praise, indeed, for no matter what your creed or lack of one, the haunting lilt. of the old song makes a heart appeal that will not be denied. ■ ' . Quite recently Father O'Flynn's parishioners mustered m great style to speed him on his way to his old home m Erin's Isle. And instead of handing him a .'bouquet they passed over a wallet well-lined with crinkly notes. And then there was the laying- on of many hands — •'hands calloused, smooth and 'wrinkled — and testimony with a catch m the voice and the tremolo stop out concerning the wonderful, way the Father has "wid ..him!" But think of the wonderful tale he'll have to tell them .of the "ould sod" on his returnl .