A childhood friend of the Dublin-born Cardinal who is effectively running the Catholic Church at the moment confirms that if Kevin Farrell is announced as the next Pope he will attend his consecration in Rome.
Cardinal Farrell was born and grew up in Dublin before leaving Ireland at the age of 16 to join the priesthood abroad.
He has since risen to the role of ‘Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church’, the cleric charged with keeping the Church going until the election of a new Pope and has been labelled an ‘interim pope’.
“The other morning I watched the service in the Vatican, where he was the celebrant and it was bringing the Pope’s body into St Peter’s. He was speaking and praying in Latin, but you could hear his Dublin accent. It really brought it home to me,” smiles Alan Whelan.
Alan grew up alongside Kevin and his family in the working class south Dublin suburb of Drimnagh, with their respective parents having jobs in a local cigarette factory.
“Molly Kirwan (Mrs Farrell) and my mother were good friends and they worked together for several years in the Player Wills Cigarette Factory during World War II years,” he recalls.
“They both got married about the same time and, with their husbands, went to live in the newly-built parish of Mourne Road Drimnagh.
“Kevin was the second of four brothers born to Edward (Ned) Farrell and Molly Kirwan: Brian, Kevin, Paddy and Eamon. They lived in Galtymore Park, a small quiet street in Drimnagh.
“My parents lived a few minutes away on Errigal Road and the two families often visited one another’s homes in the evenings. Our mums were particularly close and often helped one another out financially until their husband’s respective paydays.
“Kevin was my age (here is six months between us) and his brother Brian is three years older.
“We did socialise and play with one another and other local children in our settled working class community, which to some extent centred around Mourne Road Church and St John Bosco Youth Club (with its strong Salesian influence).”
Alan remembers the Farrell brothers were sent to St Teresa’s Christian Brothers’ School on Donore Avenue in Dublin’s Liberties.
“There was a lot more knocking around in those days,” he recalls. “We were always out of one another’s houses. Where Kevin and Brian lived it was a quiet little street. There wasn’t a lot of cars in those days. You were playing in the street late at night and so on, and his road in particular you could play out until nine or 10 at night and nobody would bother the least about it, you’d be totally safe.”
Alan went to the CBS on James’s Street and recalls the order which Kevin and Brian later joined, the Mexican-originated Legionnaires of Christ, coming around to the school looking for vocations.
“My mother was at both of the boys’ ordination, and even though there was three years between them, there was nine or 10 years between both of their ordinations,” he remembers.
The branch has been compared to Opus Dei.
“I remember my mother coming back from one of them (ordinations) and from her point of view being disgusted at the affluent outward lifestyle, like having cufflinks on – by the way, Vatican II was going back then there was a great liberation in terms of how clergy would have dressed and so on, but the Legionnaires of Christ would have been exceedingly conservative.”
Alan emigrated to England at the age of 18 and began working in teaching, with among his famous students TV presenter Dermot O’Leary.
At one stage he was principal of London’s only joint Roman Catholic and Church of England School.
He followed 77-year-old Kevin’s career closely down through the years, with the Dubliner becoming Auxiliary Bishop of Washington, Bishop of Dallas and then in 2016 appointed as a Cardinal by Pope Francis.
Alan, who is also president of England’s Catholic Secondary Schools Parents’ Association, met Cardinal Farrell again in 2018 when he came to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families and Pope Francis’ visit here.
“We had a good chat about old times and shared lots of stories,” he recalls.
Alan admits he is naturally delighted about Cardinal Farrell’s rise within the Church. Just two previous Popes who have been in Cardinal Farrell’s ‘Camerlengo’ role have been elected as Pope, the last being Pope Pius X11 in 1939.
It will also be the ‘Camerlengo’s’ duty to announce that a new Pope has been selected as the famous white smoke emerges to signal a new leader of the Catholic church’s 1.4 billion flock.
“I was not surprised when Cardinal Farrell was asked to become Carmerlengo, as he is a man of warmth and of tact,” says Alan.
“I see so much in his early home circumstances and social background that Pope Francis would have found appealing – particularly for someone who has some quite personal tasks to perform.
“If he was chosen, I’m sure he would be a good Pope. I think it’s highly unlikely though, and I think it more unlikely that he would be wanting or willing to be. Why would anyone want more headaches (laughs).
“I would imagine he will be particularly influential, he will be very well known because of his role in the United States, because of his linguistic abilities and because his role at the Vatican has taken him across the world for all sorts of family and laity events.”
A member of Cardinal Farrell’s family here told us the family have taken a collective decision not to comment on his elevated role in the Church.