The SVDP also served
as Passkeepers and at each Mass two stood behind a small
table with their back to the wall taking the donations and giving change.
The late
Peter Clark was both the President of the Conference and Pass-Keeper-in-Chief
and
is well remembered for the times when the Chapel would be almost filled to
capacity and latecomers required seating, Peter would walk to the front of
the Chapel, encourage those seated with a firm push to squeeze up, then fix
his eyes on the yet to be seated and beckon them with the famous crooked finger
to publicly humiliate themselves by walking the length of the church, head
suitably bowed. Lighter moments for those with a view would occur when those
beckoned steadfastly refused or had found a seat nearer the back much to the
visible annoyance and displeasure of Peter.
Peter, like a few other members, was a miner working at the coalface in Kingshill No. 1 Colliery. Two men, not of his faith, were discussing his church activities; one of them insisted that Peter the Assistant Priest and the other who knowing he was not asked for proof. “Well”, said the former “ I was at a service in the Chapel one night and the priest said one half while Wee Peter said the second. No doubt the Rosary was being recited, but this lead to a whole new discussion as to what the former was doing in the Chapel if he was not a Catholic.
Peter was also seen to make the Sign of the Cross several times during particularly dangerous moments at the coalface. He was not alone.
For many years the SVDP organised the Old Folks Bus Run to Saltcoats. It was always to Saltcoats and to the same Restaurant, where the group were always well received and well catered for. The restaurant was run by a widow woman who it was rumoured was looking for a man and every year proposed to Peter having first greeted him with a hug and a kiss. Peter never accepted but still kept going back.
The Needy of The Times.
Headings from the SVDP Returns for the Archdiocese of Glasgow 1921-1922:
The Boys Guild
The Brothers of Saint Vincent de Paul in Newmains also ran the Boys Guild,
and in the late 1940’s would take groups of boys on holiday. In 1947
and 1948 Hugh Brawley organised a holiday in Carnlough, a seaside village
in Co. Antrim, for some 20 boys and managed them on his own for two weeks.
Quite an undertaking for one man with twenty teenagers. The sleeping quarters
were a hall in the village where the boys slept on the bare boards and the
duvets were army blankets. Excellent meals were served in the restaurant across
the road. The boys were popular in the village and the singers among them
would participate in the local concerts. Willie Young also organised camping
holidays at a later date.
