Diarmuid Martin might have become a busman rather than a high-flying Vatican diplomat for three decades and now the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. A rare glimpse of the young Diarmuid at play in their working-class home in Ballyfermot is given by his big brother, Seamus, in a biography of his life as a journalist.
The book, 'Good Times, and Bad', published by the Mercier Press, was launched last night in good humour and benign, fraternal love by the ever discreet archbishop in spite of 'the kiss and tell' details of his less diplomatic older sibling.
According to the worldly-wise Seamus, his wee brother "knew the numbers and destinations of all the bus routes in Dublin, and drove them around the backyard in his imagination."
Bookish and prone to turn their home into an imaginary chapel where he would play devoutly the part of the priest saying Mass using a lemon as a Host while Seamus was the altar boy, Diarmuid was not into sport, unlike Seamus and the rest of the boys in the neighbourhood.
Seamus also reveals that while he himself never had the faintest idea if he had a spare bob in his pocket, the prudent Diarmuid "would always know exactly how much money he had in his pocket".
Seamus further discloses that Diarmuid would not have made it to university because of the family's poverty if he had not entered the Church.
Getting third level third level education from the Dublin archdiocese deprived the capital city of a potentially dynamic driver.
Explaining his own views on the book, Archbishop Martin said in a witty speech: "My reaction is one of delight and relief to find what he had not written."
Earlier, Archbishop Martin launched a report by the Young Christian Workers showing that only a tiny proportion of migrant workers are informed about their employment rights.
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