Originally published in The Gateway Issue No. 16 (August 2009)
Ireland is divided into four provinces namely, Munster, Leinster, Connaught and Ulster. The province of Ulster, in the north, is special in the sense that six of its nine counties are under British jurisdiction. Brother Meldan was born in County Monaghan, one of the three counties in the Republic of Ireland. He remained a staunch Ulster man and Monaghan man all his life.
He was born on the 5th January 1915 in the well-kept, picturesque village of Emyvale, the sixth in a family of seven, six boys and one girl. He was called James Myles at baptism. His mother died when he was three and his father when he was eleven, leaving the eldest brother, Johnny, then twenty-six, to look after the family.
The young James did well at school and he had high regard for his teachers. Nationalist feelings ran high at the time and James was happy to join a local band which played Irish traditional music. He played the flute and it became a constant companion throughout his life.
One day his school had a visit from the McKenna brothers, three of whom were De La Salle Brothers. They opened up the prospect of a career as a teaching Brother. James felt inspired to volunteer and he left home in August 1930 to join the Brothers’ formation school in Castletown, County Laois. He had little interest in games preferring instead to delve into history, politics and mathematics as well as playing the flute at concerts.
On the 13th June 1931, he entered the Novitiate for a year’s training in the spiritual way of life at the end of which he took his first vows, received the religious name of Meldan and then left for Kilmacow for further studies with a view to admission to Teacher Training College.
Suddenly the even tenor of life was broken with the visit of Brother Marcian Cullen who made an urgent appeal for volunteers for the missions. Brother Meldan was one of those who volunteered and was accepted. At the age of eighteen he, together with other missionary volunteers, was on his way to Paris and then Marseilles. He wrote to his family back home: “We had a lovely time in France and were treated very kindly by the Brothers everywhere we went”. He was not to see his family again for another thirteen years. The group boarded a ship on the 24th May 1933. After a long, hot, steamy passage the ship eventually docked at Penang on the 26th June. A few days later Brother Meldan was assigned to Burma and arrived in Rangoon on the 11th July.
In Burma he was first assigned to St Patrick’s High School, Moulmein and he was to do two terms there. Like all young Brothers, Meldan from the first moment was in love with Burma and its people, the land of pagodas and saffron-robed monks. At first all went well but shortly the dreaded TB virus struck and, after medical checks, he was sent to St Peter’s High School, Mandalay. Here the climate was much more conducive, and together with the help of a dozen raw eggs daily, prescribed by the doctor, he gradually shook off the virus. He himself was convinced that it was playing the flute that cured him, as this entailed a lot of deep breathing. He loved the city of Mandalay, with its rich history, and was happy with his teaching duties. The brush with TB, however, made him very conscious of his health and the threat of TB would always be with him.
In 1937 Japan invaded China and in moving westwards Burma felt threatened. Brother Visitor felt that the young Brothers in Burma were at risk. In 1940 Meldan was transferred to Malaysia. He did not like leaving Burma and was not long teaching in his new environment in St Xavier’s Penang when he was found to be suffering again from TB. He had to leave class and was confined to a secluded room for six months.
The Japanese invasion of Malaysia began on the 8th December 1941 and in late November 1942 Meldan moved to St Paul’s Seremban. The school had reopened as a Japanese technical school and Meldan joined the other Brothers in learning Japanese. A competence in the language meant an increase in salary beyond the pitiful living allowance of $80.00 a month. In January 1944 a Japanese headmaster took over and non-Asians were removed from the staff. Five Brothers, including Meldan, had little choice but to join the Singapore Brothers in the jungle settlement at Bahau, some thirty miles away. This would be Meldan’s “home” for the next 20 months.
And what a home it proved to be. Life was tough and food scarce and residents were cut off from news of the outside world. Brother Meldan joined the workforce, growing tobacco, peanuts and pumpkins as well as doing some cooking. But the soil was giving out and there was a poor return for their labour. Worst of all, a virulent strain of the dreaded malaria struck.
Brother Philip O’Callaghan wrote: “Every single Brother was laid low with malaria except Meldan. In spite of the tropical heat and hard work he always wore football socks into which he tucked his trousers. Similarly his arms were wrapped in old stockings and he wore a baraclava type covering on his head. Mosquitoes could never penetrate such defences”. As an added precaution he smoked whatever was available, from cigarettes to Indian cheroots. Two Brothers, however, close friends of Brother Meldan, succumbed to the disease and died. They had contracted cerebral malaria. Their deaths greatly upset all the Brothers and Brother Meldan would often recall those tragic events.
When the war ended he was recalled to his Community in Seremban where normal schooling was resumed as quickly as possible. He was allowed a much-appreciated home visit in 1947, his first since 1933, and then he proceeded to University College Dublin where he took an Honours BA in History and Political Theory, his favourite subjects. Following a holiday home he was happy to be on his way once again to Singapore, arriving there in December 1950.
He was given a Pre-University class at the well-known St Joseph’s Institution and was assigned to teach Economics, General Paper and Geography. He taught his charges thoroughly and well. He helped order a whole new arts library, one of the best in Singapore. He was also asked and agreed to teach English in the Teachers’ Training College and did so with much success.
After two years in Singapore Brother Meldan was transferred to St Michael’s Institution, Ipoh. The school was about to open a new sixth form and Brother Meldan was the man for the job. Here he laid the foundations for an excellent tradition. In Ipoh he also found time to indulge one of his favourite hobbies, walking, especially along the banks of the Kinta river which flowed by the school.
Meldan’s call to St Joseph’s College, Hong Kong, took place in 1956 and, apart from a brief interlude in Sabah, he was to stay there for almost thirty years. Again he set about organizing the Form 6 Arts Stream, which was then only in its infancy. This involved a lot of hard work and he was teaching subjects like Economics, Geography, History and Literature practically on his own, an almost impossible workload. After two or three years he opted to teach in the lower forms and made Form 3 in particular his stamping ground.
Meldan was terrific in school. Every lesson was prepared assiduously. Everything was thoroughly researched and written up before entering any class. He insisted on full attention and the students took their cue. Indeed, on his way to class, he could be heard intoning ”In the name of the Father…” before he even reached the door. This was probably to ensure quiet before his actual arrival. He detested bullies. Once he told us how he picked out one such, ‘the biggest fellow sitting at the back of the class,’ and had him on his knees crying for mercy! While the students had a healthy respect for his insistence on discipline, they thrived in the learning atmosphere he created and, not infrequently, succeeded in bringing out his human and humorous side.
For recreation he indulged in his great hobby, walking and collecting orchids along the streams of the Hong Kong and Kowloon hills. He knew the correct botanical name for each one. On occasions he would take a camera to photograph an exotic find. His faithful companion on these hikes was Brother Patricius O’Donovan who had also borne the burden of the heat and the day in the jungle at Bahau.
Throughout much of his life Brother Meldan was plagued with sickness of one kind or another. He would often refer to himself as “a sick man”. He had more or less weathered the TB storm and malaria. But now two new monsters raised their ugly heads in the forms of pernicious anaemia, an enervating ailment, and insomnia, which, he admitted, almost drove him mad. In 1967, a short stint in hot and humid Sabah did not help matters. He returned to Hong Kong in November of the same year, looking as white as a sheet. This was followed by hospitalization, the opening of a hole in his throat, medication and injections for nerves and anaemia.
Sometimes his sickness complaints had a humorous side. There was the occasion of a visit by a priest. When the priest shook his hand and remarked: “Hello Meldan, your hands are lovely and warm”! Back came the response: “They’re warm on the outside but cold inside”!
In retirement he was not at all idle. He kept himself busy checking District records and updating information on the lives of deceased Brothers associated with the District of Penang. He read a lot and gathered a goodly collection of books and Lasallian heritage materials in his room. The Brothers regarded him as their Hong Kong Lasallian archivist.
Although he visited Ireland and home a few times, it was not until June 1985 that he eventually decided to settle into the Holy Family Community in Castletown. Here he improved a lot and enjoyed many years of reasonably good health. One of his Directors at the time, Brother Albert Tierney, had this to say: “Meldan was a great conversationalist, great raconteur. He had an encyclopedic memory for Northern Ireland. Truly he loved his native land”. He was able to visit his family about once a year. He would also recall stories of his youthful days in Burma, the place where he made his final profession in 1938.
Although keeping reasonably well health-wise, a serious attack of shingles at Easter 1993 greatly weakened him and he admitted it shook him to his foundations. He began to decline after that and by 1995 was confined to a wheelchair and paralysed from the waist down. Brother Patrick Tierney writes: “I visited him twice just before his death. The first visit, about a week before the end, was sad because he was in and out of awareness. But at least he recognized me and spoke a little about Hong Kong. At the second visit a few days before the end, he was unaware of his surroundings.”
He passed away on the 16th August 1995 at Miguel House, Castletown. Brother James Dooley gave the homily and spoke of “a man who deeply loved his family and friends and country, a man of great loyalty to his Institute, and with a deep love of God and his Blessed Mother”. The funeral was large, attended by the Brothers, relatives and a huge contingent of neighbours.
Brother Philip O’Callaghan, an old friend of Meldan, paid tribute to him in a poem entitled ‘Remembering Meldan’:
Death did smile - an incongruous thing!
Yet death did smile!
For here was a soul crossing the Styx
With wealth aplenty and more the while
Leaving behind a legacy - a matrix
Of memories in kindly words, concerns, fidelities – a profile
Insuring death hath lost its sting –
E’en more – more to pay the crossing toll
And jump the queue at heaven’s gate.
For he hath brought through earthly fires – gold
Purified by suffering kindled – prayer intense;
Myrrhed humility – an approaching state
To Godhead, imaged in human experience.
Others had this to say:
“In his best teaching days few equalled him for excellence and perfection in detail; everything was thoroughly researched and written up before entering any class. He always insisted on full attention from the students and in the interests of their survival they soon learned to co-operate”.
“He was very close to nature and adored flowers. His life was a continuous celebration of God’s gifts and he asked during his final illness that there be no crying or mourning at his death, rather merriment and celebration.”
