蜜芽传媒

Very Rev. Cyril Patrick Crean was the youngest of four sons of a Dublin barrister who were educated at Belvedere College, Dublin. His uncle Major Thomas Joseph Crean, V.C., D.S.O., another Belvederian, was a surgeon who won the Victoria Cross in the Boer War and the DSO in WWI.

Fr. Paddy, as he was known to his friends, entered the priesthood in 1933, and served as a curate in several Dublin parishes. He joined the British Army as a Roman Catholic Chaplain in 1941. He was a very tall man, about 6鈥�3鈥�, with large feet, and jokingly always laid the blame for his fallen arches on a parachute jump from an airplane during his military training when he landed heavily on rough ground. Fr. Paddy was with the 29th Armored Brigade, and landed on D-Day on Juno Beach at Bernieres-sur-Mers. He went through Belgium, Holland, etc. He was awarded the MBE on 24 January 1946. On his return home to Dublin, he was made curate of the Parish of the Sacred Heart, Donnybrook, Dublin.

In 1955 he was appointed Head Chaplain of the Irish Forces because of his wartime experiences. In 1960 he accompanied the 32nd Battalion of the Irish Army to the Congo, as part of the U.N. Peace Keeping Force. He returned to the Congo with the Irish troops in 1962 for a second tour of duty. In September 1962 he retired from the Irish Army and was appointed Parish Priest of Donnybrook, Dublin. In June 1973 he celebrated the fortieth Anniversary of his Ordination. He died on 10th August 1973.

The Citation for his MBE reads as follows:

"Father Crean has been the Roman Catholic Senior Chaplain within 1 Corps throughout the campaign in North West Europe.

Possessing a quiet, sincere and likeable character, he has always been on the best of terms with all ranks. He has never spared himself in his work and had afforded great assistance and comfort to many.

He has made constant visits to the wounded, often in advanced medical posts and has throughout shown great keenness and organizing ability in arranging clubs and rest rooms, which have not been confined to those of his own creed.

During the early days of the bridgehead he did invaluable work in locating the burial places and identifying the bodies of unknown airmen, who had crashed and had been reported missing. This work voluntarily undertaken by him must have been of inestimable comfort to the airmen鈥檚 next of kin.

He has been a strong rock to those of his own flock, and has throughout taken the greatest interest in all matters pertaining to the welfare of the troops. He has set a very fine example and has made a great contribution to the happiness and wellbeing of the men".

Fr Paddy鈥檚 letters home were always typed in blue ink on an old battered typewriter.
He obviously played down the dangers he was in to his father, as his letters to him were always cheerful, his sense of humour shining through his war experiences. I have the original letter written by him to his father shortly after the D-Day Landings.

Text reads:

1 Corps H.Q. Rear 鈥�
A.P.O.
England.
Thursday 22nd June 鈥� 1944
10 o鈥檆lock P.M.

Dearest Dad,

Here I am sitting in my tent and it is still broad daylight. Overhead there is a plane droning - one of ours. Not far away our guns are firing and apart from that one might as well be in the Phoenix Park! After 16 days of this second Front thank God I am safe and well. We are in France as you know and everything is going well. I am overwhelmed with chaps all clamouring for the comforts of the Faith and I must say whatever dangers there may be and there are some of course, it is all well worth it. I have been up to the front quite a lot and been shelled once! However, God is Good and though sometimes things get a bit hot at night I don鈥檛 feel the least bit depressed or strained. Our chaplains have been wonderful, and as must be expected I have had several casualties amongst them but only one fatal. I live in a tent and sleep in a slit trench! We have unwelcome visitors some nights and it is safer below ground. In a nearby town we have a gorgeous Church in which I say Mass for the lads at 6.30 every evening and they simply flock to it. The French priests are grand and I manage to carry on quite a brisk conversation with them. They are so delighted with the soldiers the way they come to Mass. There is a Major Rathbone here from Dublin who has become a great pal of mine. He loves talking about Dublin and we stroll about in the evening talking about all the old characters of Dublin. He used to live on Palmerston Road years ago (where the Crean family lived).

I have had the most amazing experiences some of them gruesome and sad; others frightening and some just exciting. Through them all thank God I have kept my old spirits and am enjoying it as much as anyone could enjoy such a grim business. I hope you and the family are very well and not forgetting me in your prayers. Of course I did not expect to yet but I haven鈥檛 heard from anybody since D-Day. I had a letter from John B. and Moira (his brother and sister) written late in May. The Irish Times arrived twice!

The trip over in that enormous convoy was a thrilling sight. I shall never forget my feelings when I stepped out of the landing craft to go ashore. I waded in with the rest with all my kit on my back from about knee depth. Tye beach was an extraordinary sight. You can鈥檛 fully imagine it and I shall not try to describe it here. I had a great deal of travelling to do and tear along the French roads in my truck up to the front line often with relief chaplains etc. Everywhere the boys are delighted to see the priest and always wave a welcome to you. I have a grand team of priests and all have been heroes and still are. The nights are a bit trying but thank God they don鈥檛 get me down and I get quite a lot of sleep. My first real air raid was in France. What a noise. It was terrific. My Irish batman is a treasure as nothing frightens him and I can rely on him to drive through anything they can put over us. I met lots of my old friends here since we came over and am always running into people I know in odd sorts of places. How is Moira (his sister and my mother) I do hope the face is much better. I am eagerly awaiting news of you all and long for the day when this is over and won. What a party it will be when I get home again.

I started a letter to Angela tell her, (sister) and haven鈥檛 finished it yet. Really life is so full now that the only time I get for letters is as night and then I feel too tired to write. However, Thank God so far I have managed to copy with everything including casualties amongst the chaplains and I honestly think the men in this show got every possible chance in the matter of their Sacraments.

Now Da you must forgive me if I have a one track mind just now. How are you? I never cease thinking of you all at home and wondering how you are. You must keep the home fires metaphorically burning at least till we get back. Has Tessa been keeping well. Give her my very best regards (his stepmother). I met Desmond Murphy the other day and we went up together to see the things. I wrote to Aunt Emmy (sister of Major T. J. Crean V.C., D.S.O.) and by now she will know I am in France. Has Ros (sister) returned to Cork by now tell her I will write very soon. Did I tell you my new Patron 鈥淕ood King Wenceslas鈥� because the dear gentleman looked out, and so did I!

Well God Bless you Dad and write soon. I am perfectly fit, never better. The food is absolutely grand and we get a daily slab of chocolate and sweets. Everything is grand and we are getting towards the end.

Love to all, your devoted son Paddy.

My late uncle, Rev. C. P. (Paddy) Crean, MBE., managed to write quite a few letters home during his WW2 experiences. He was a wonderful letter writer. Amongst those I possess is one dated 12 August 1944, written to his best friend, Fr. Liam Breen, a Dublin priest,in which he describes landing on D-Day. When Fr. Breen died, his housekeeper contacted me and asked if I was interested in having my uncle鈥檚 letters back! He wrote:

鈥� I landed on D-day in water waist deep and waded ashore into the midst of the most incredible sight in history. The fleet of ships was terrific and my first sight of France was of a Church steeple with a hole clean through the side of it 鈥� a German plane appeared and as if by magic six of ours were on his tail and down he came.鈥�

Like a lot of other soldiers who survived WW2 he very rarely spoke about it, so his letters home are a very precious insight into what really happened on that day in June 1944.

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