JAMES FORAN (1823-1900)

Pioneering Pastor of the Falkland Islands

Student of Theology 1853-57*

 

Although he was not the first priest to visit the Falkland Islands, James Forman's unusual missionary motivation and his decade of sterling service there mark him out as one of the most distinctive and distinguished evangelizers of the late nineteenth century.

 James Foran was born on 5 December 1823 at Whitefield, Tramore, Co Waterford, eighth of the eleven children (nine boys and two girls) of Michael Foran and Bridget, née Dooley. His father appears to have been a nephew of Dr Nicholas Foran, Catholic bishop of Waterford and Lismore.  He went to the Latin school in Carrick-on-Suir, followed by four years in St. John’s College, Waterford and four years at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth. He was ordained priest in Waterford on 10th November 1855*. He immediately moved to the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle and joined his elder brother, Father Robert Foran, working with Irish immigrants in the parish of St Andrew’s Catholic Church, Worswick Street, Newcastle upon Tyne.

After three years his brother was recalled to Waterford, but Fr James refused to follow him back to Ireland.   He was serving in the old parish of St Andrew’s, his territory stretched east along the river Tyne to St. Cuthbert’s, North Shields, where the priest there was Father William Bewick.  Fr James would often have to walk up and down through Walker to Wallsend, and even up to Benton to catechise the people and visit the sick.

The population in Walker increased because of the development of the coalmines, chemical works, ironworks and shipyards along the riverside in St. Anthony’s.  Catholics found it difficult getting to Mass and receiving the Sacraments.  It was at this time Bishop Hogarth agreed to establish a new parish.  Land was bought from the Newcastle Corporation which owned the Walker Estate and Fr James Foran was appointed as Parish Priest.  Soon after this he had built the Church and presbytery and within five years he had built a school.

In 1868, Father Foran described the extent of the parish, pointing out the main areas where Catholics lived; High and Low Walker, Bill Point, St. Anthony’s, Byker and Byker Hill, Bigges Main and Billy Pit, and Little Benton.  He estimates the overall population at 10,000 with 2,372 Catholics and rising.  There were around 140 baptisms each year and just under 1000 Catholics fulfilled their Easter Duties.  The schools accommodated 124 boys and 126 girls, there were Sunday schools and Night schools for both boys and girls.  Many of the eleven and twelve-year-olds were already going out to work.

Father James became aware of a small community of Catholics on the Falkland Isles and he appealed to the Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, Bishop Chadwick, to be allowed to work there. Bishop Chadwick reluctantly agreed to release him.  Cardinal Manning petitioned Rome and it was agreed he could serve the islands and would be given means to buy altar requisites and a passage to Port Stanley.

In his journal Father Foran wrote, “Although I knew nothing of these islands save their existence I had a longing for the place some years before I took the resolution of coming here.  I was prompted by this step by learning accidentally that there were a number of catholics here without a priest.  I with some difficulty obtained the leave of my Bishop.”

He writes of his departure: “I left Walker at 12:30 on Friday, the 17th September 1875, on my journey to the Falkland Islands.  The night was very bright and a placid moon lighted our path as I, in company with my old and valued friends, James Frazer and Michael Ryan, passed along Byker path to Newcastle.  I left in my house another dear little friend, Samuel Hawkins, to keep company with his sisters, Jane and Margaret, who had hitherto been my servants.  My poor little black dog, Prince, ran out as usual with his master, but was driven back, never perhaps to see his master again.”

“I have often wondered how cooly and quietly I took my departure, fully aware of the ‘breakers ahead’, which at that distance seemed to have no terror for me.  I am full of sadness now that I have just arrived at my destination.”

Before leaving England, Father Foran was warmly received by Cardinal Manning.  He set sail from Southampton on board the S.S. Guadiana.

Voyaging south he recorded in his journal his new experiences – visits to ports, sightings of shoals of dolphins and flying fish, the rising of new constellations, temperature changes.  Spanish and Portuguese passengers attended his shipboard masses.

He called at Rio de Janeiro and then at Montevideo where he met an Irish priest, Father Kirwan, “an old man and a fine fellow” who had spent four months on the Falklands twenty years before.

He left Walker on 17 September 1875 on the long sea journey which was broken with calls at Lisbon and Río de Janeiro before arriving in Montevideo. He then sailed on the FIC schooner Black Hawk for Stanley where he arrived on 3 December. He was well received by Governor Darcy and lived for a while at Government House before obtaining his own residence. His journal notes are revealing:

I have often wondered how coolly and quietly I took my departure, fully aware of the "breakers ahead", which at that distance seemed to have no terror for me. I am full of sadness now that I have arrived at my destination...The desires of past years are now accomplished. How often have I wished that I should be favoured with a sight of this country.

Putting out to sea again, this time of the Black Hawk, Father Foran journeyed on.  On 3rd November he sighted the Falklands and wrote: “The desires of past years are now accomplished.  How often have I wished that I should be favoured with a sight of this country!  It is the will of God that my wish should be complied with, and may He grant that my arrival and ministration here may be for His honour and glory and the salvation of my own soul and the souls of others.  Deo Gratias.”

The Governor, Colonel D’Arcy, though not a Catholic, welcomed Father Foran most hospitably to Stanley insisting he stayed at Government House until he could find his own accommodation.

Father Foran noted his first impressions: “The appearance of the surrounding country is as bleak as anything can be.  No tree, no green grass, although this month corresponds with May in Ireland.  The weather is fine for Falkland weather, but it is much colder than May in Ireland.  The Catholics of the Islands number only about 150.  The chapel is a wooden building, 33 feet by 18 feet, and of proportionate height.  It is very handsomely built and furnished.”

In a letter to Cardinal Franchi, he comments:  “I find a great apathy on religious matters here.  The families with few exceptions are mixed marriages.  In many instances the female children follow the religion of their mothers, and the males that of their fathers.  Some have also gone over to the Protestant Church who once practised our holy religion.”

Father Foran writes in another letter that “the rule up to this time was that the Archbishop of Buenos Aires sent a priest to this place once in seven years.”

Father Foran’s congregation in the Falklands entered on Catholic Irish pensioners and their families among the colonists sent out by the Government in 1849.  He spent his days celebrating Mass, preaching, forming a communion class, baptising and opening a Sunday school in Stanley.  On his journeys through the islands by schooner and on horseback he administered the sacraments and said Holy Mass in the farm houses, visited sick and injured seamen on board their ships, and won back souls to Christ.

The congregations were poor and dispersed so Father Foran had to seek financial support from the Association for the Propagation of the Faith who gave him a grant of £100.  The Colonel Office later granted him an annual salary of £50.  Two good Catholic families arrived, that of the new Governor, Mr G Callaghan, and the new colonial doctor, Dr Mulvany.  Father Foran’s life in the South Atlantic continued to bear witness to his Walker parishioners’ view if him as a ‘simple, earnest and contented soul.’

In October 1879 he wrote to the Association for the Propagation of the Faith with an idea which was to be carried out with great success in later years:  “It was and is my great desire to succeed in placing this mission in the hands of some missionary society which could send two priests and a lay-brother to reside there.  I had also a hope that if a missionary society took charge of this mission, such might begin a mission among the Patagonians or the Fuegians who inhabit the islands south of the Straits of Magellan.  These latter islands will be a fertile field for missionary labour.  Having before may mind the hopes I have now given expressions to, I secured 1.5 acres of land in Stanley in a good situation and fenced all around.  It is a good position for a church, presbytery, convent, school and garden.”

It was a tough and arduous climate in which to work but with his accustomed energy he soon organised his preaching ministry, started catechism classes as well as Sunday School in Stanley and also travelled in the Camp by horse and around the islands by schooner to visit the distant faithful. There was work to be done and soon he opened a school under the care of Samuel Walker, a teacher from his former parish of Walker. Life was hard and it was not without reason that Governor T. F. Callaghan would describe the islands as 'one of the most backward of Her Majesty's colonies'. One of the few gripes Foran ever expressed was over the irregularity of the mail and he often comments in his letters about waiting for the post.

Solitude and the harsh climatic conditions took their toll and so from 1881 Foran would divide his time between his mission to the Islanders and the rural Irish community in Argentina. During the next five years he would reside at San Nicolás de los Arroyos (Province of Buenos Aires) and travel back and forth between the Islands and Argentina via Buenos Aires and Montevideo. During the months of January and February of 1886 the church which was built for and by Catholics and opened in 1873 on Pump Green was moved to a site acquired by the Catholic community on the 'Front Road'. Foran took his final leave of the Falklands on 20 April 1886, staying at San Nicolás for some six months before sailing for Naples on 18 October. From there he went to Rome to advise the missionary organisation, Propaganda Fide, about his labours and on the way back to Newcastle gave a lecture about the Irish community in Argentina to students of the Irish College, Paris.

In a letter of 15 April 1886 to Mrs Caroline D'Arcy, widow of the former governor, and written just five days before leaving Stanley, Foran revealed his true feelings: 'As I am now preparing to leave the Falklands I think it is only right that I should tell you so. I have remained in this place longer than I intended. I am sorry however that I go away without having done any lasting good. I have attempted several schemes to put the Mission on a lasting footing - and all failed'. He was always the humble priest.

By 1887 Foran had returned to the diocese of Hexham and Newcastle and was installed as parish priest of Blackhill, County Durham. He was back, and although not their priest, the people of Walker who loved him so much, presented him with a formal address of welcome home. He died on 29 January 1900. An editorial in the Consett Chronicle of Friday 9 February 1900 observed:

None who knew him but loved him, none but felt their hearts drawn towards him, to the last by his gentleness, his sympathy, his love of Nature, and, above all by his gentleness and unaffected humility ... Energetic and assiduous in the performance of his priestly duties, Father Foran was admired and loved. In the pulpit, or the platform, the homely language, the gentle, earnest, impressive manner of this kind old man fixed the attention and won the hearts of all. His life was devoted solely to the poor. No home was too mean or miserable for his visits - no sick parishioner too ragged or wretched to be sought out and comforted by him. He looked upon men as children of God, on all Christians as the redeemed of one Saviour.