A parade down memory lane BY MAUREEN HELEN
SAINT PATRICK’S DAY CELEBRATIONS TOOK PLACE ON SUBIACO OVAL FROM AROUND 1910 UNTIL THE EARLY NINETEEN FIFTIES. IN THE 1940s AND 1950s, WHEN I WENT TO SCHOOL, THE DAY CREATED A BUZZ FOR US CATHOLIC KIDS.
Bus after bus pulled up outside the gates of the now flattened Oval. Children from every Catholic school in the greater Perth area tumbled out. We girls wore our best uniforms, complete with hats and gloves. Only the bright green ribbons in our hair or pinned to our chests marked this day as special. We marched in orderly lines into the grassy centre of the oval. Shepherded by anxious nuns and religious brothers, we took up our allotted places. Their schools were on show; we were on our best behaviour. We waited in silence in front of a specially erected dais until the Saint Patrick’s Day Mass began.
FORMAL CELEBRATION OF SAINT PATRICK’S DAY The Archbishop of Perth, flanked by a number of priest, processed through the children sitting or kneeling on the grass. The celebrants took their places in front of the makeshift altar and turned their backs to us. All we could see was a bank of white and gold vestments. The celebrants intoned solemn Latin, the language of the Mass, so we had no idea of what they said. In our parish churches hymns at Mass were also sung in Latin, but on Saint Patrick’s Day we sang loudly and joyfully in English. We sang to the saint, and about him, because he was said to be the Patron Saint of Australia.
18 | THE IRISH SCENE
