Canon Hannan was a man on a mission

TO COMMEMORATE the founding of the club on August 6, 1875, Hibernian FC has prepared an exhibition in the very place and on the very same day that the club was founded 150 years ago. In just two days, more than 2000 supporters signed up to visit St Mary’s Street Hall, Edinburgh via an online sign-up process. However, there is good news for fans who missed out, all of the artefacts and memorabilia will go on show in the visitor centre, which will be opening at Easter Road later this year.

Hibs fans have shown real interest in the club’s history, which will be further satisfied by the publication of the first ever biography of the club’s co-founder, Canon Edward Joseph Hannan (above). Mike Hennessy’s book, Edinburgh’s First Hibernian, by Thirsty Books, will also be launched in the Cowgate—at St Patrick’s Church—on August 6!

St Patrick’s was where the predominantly first- and second-generation Irish of Edinburgh worshipped, and where Canon Hannan plotted how to prepare his parishioners for life in the home city of John Knox. When the first wave of immigrants arrived following An Gorta Mór (the Great Hunger) in the 1840s, the only available accommodation for them were the tenements and slums in the Cowgate, Canongate and surrounding streets, wynds and closes. They lived in poorly lit rooms, sometimes several families at a time, with little thought for human decency or basic sanitation. Many could not speak English, and were poorly nourished, and in such a state were unemployable except in the most menial tasks.

Canon Hannan’s mission was to enable his parishioners to participate in the economic and social life of the city. The tools he used to provide for his people were education, temperance, sport and an appreciation of and devotion to family values. The main vehicle for this was the branch of the Catholic Young Men’s Society (CYMS), which he opened in 1865. It had a savings bank, funeral and benefits society, leisure and reading facilities and a drama society all providing advantages and activities to take young men off street corners.

His people nonetheless faced prejudice, and it was in part a refusal by other local football teams to accept Irishmen and Catholics that resulted in their forming their own football team, Hibernian FC. Initial resistance to their joining the Edinburgh FA and the Scottish FA was overcome after much lobbying and the support of more enlightened fellow players from other clubs.

Historical backdrop

Hennessy’s book starts by painting the historical backdrop of 19th century Europe and goes on to trace the course of Canon Hannan’s life in Ireland. Born on a farm outside the town of Ballingarry in Limerick, he attended local primary schools before joining the junior seminary of St Munchin’s in Limerick city. After two years he moved on to All Hallows College in Dublin, his education there paid for by Bishop James Gillis of the Eastern District of Scotland, desperate for priests to administer to the floods of Irish immigrants. And after his ordination, he was summoned to Edinburgh in 1861.

The book delves into many of the issues of the day that affected the citizens of Edinburgh and to that extent it should be of interest to more than just fans of the club. The social upheavals caused by the demolition of parts of Little Ireland, as it was known, which paved the way for the rebuilding of St Mary’s Street—formerly Wynd—and the building of the Catholic Institute, are described in some detail; the impact of the campaign for Irish Home Rule on Canon Hannan’s parishioners and the broader Edinburgh public features in several chapters. The sometimes fraught relationships within the Scottish Catholic Church are exposed, with the traditional Scots—many former Jacobites—defending their customs and traditions against the Irish newcomers and the English aristocrats who defected from Anglicanism.

There are thumbnail sketches of many of the figures with whom Canon Hannan came into contact, notably Lord Provost William Chambers, the philanthropists Flora Stevenson and Mary Burton, the staunchly anti-Catholic lawyer John Hope to name but a few. And there is a whole chapter on James Connolly, perhaps Hibs’ most famous fan, exploring his activities and any links to the church and the Irish National League when he returned to Scotland after his army service. And the book points out one glaring error made by some of his biographers.

New insights

Edinburgh’s First Hibernian includes surprising new insights into the early days of the club and many of the myths and legends surrounding it are debunked. Somewhat surprisingly, some of the myths originate in Canon Hannan’s obituaries from 1891 and have been taken as fact by later authors.

For Celtic fans, there are new revelations about how half of Hibs 1887 Scottish Cup winning side ended up playing for the Glasgow club as the new season opened in August 1888. The book addresses the circumstances which stopped Hibs playing for around 18 months from the spring of 1891, just before Canon Hannan died of pneumonia; and touches on how the club was relaunched at the end of 1892 with new leadership, including the ancestors of the late Sir Tom Farmer, and with a new ground off Easter Road, a few hundred yards from the original one, and which has been home to the club ever since.

The book closes with tributes to Canon Hannan from all sides of the social and religious spectrum, a strong theme being how he bridged the religious divisions within the city with astonishing success. That his funeral cortege was followed by thousands, and the funeral and burial services were attended by members of all classes and faiths comes as no surprise; nor does the erection of the 14-foot high Celtic cross which marks his grave in the Grange Cemetery. A worthy tribute from his loving parishioners and friends. The priests at St Pat's still mark his birth and death each year between June 21 and 24 with Mass at the church and a short service at the cemetery.

Hibs legend Pat Stanton—a descendent of Hannan’s co-founder Michael Whelehan—gets the last word. His foreword to the book makes the claim: “Without this Irish priest’s work with the Old Town poor all those years ago, there would not be a Hibernian Football Club.”

Edinburgh’s First Hibernian is available from the publisher via the following link: www.thirstybooks.com/bookshop/edinburghs-first-hibernian. All of the author royalties will be donated to the Hibernian Historical Trust