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Thursday, July 10, 2025

Fr Patrick Brennan THE SINGING PRIEST

gives cred­it to T&T for mu­si­cal achieve­ments

by

20120407

For this holy East­er Sun­day fea­ture, the Sun­day Guardian sought out the af­fa­ble , who has been serv­ing T&T since he ar­rived here back in 1965, al­most 47 years ago. Born in Cork, south of Ire­land on New Year's day in 1936, he en­tered the Do­mini­can Novi­tiate in Sep­tem­ber 1954 and was or­dained a priest on Ju­ly 16, 1961. A year's study in Rome was fol­lowed by three years at the Na­tion­al Uni­ver­si­ty of Ire­land, Gal­way. In No­vem­ber 1965, he was as­signed to Holy Cross Col­lege, Ari­ma to teach "O" and "A" lev­el Eng­lish and so be­gan his call­ing here in T&T. In ad­di­tion to his priest­ly du­ties, Fr Bren­nan has de­vel­oped the rep­u­ta­tion as the 'singing priest' who has per­formed at many a Mu­sic Fes­ti­val and is of­ten called up­on to de­liv­er his Mario Lan­za-style stir­ring ren­di­tions of songs such as 'Dan­ny Boy' and 'Holy City'. One of his more re­cent 'per­for­mances' was at the Queen's Hall in aid of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Can­cer So­ci­ety. His first parish in 1971 was San Raphael, fol­lowed by Pointe-a-Pierre, South Oropouche, Mon Re­pos, Bourg Mu­la­tresse, La Ro­maine, then back to Holy Cross Pri­o­ry. He cur­rent­ly as­sists at St Fin­bar's Diego Mar­tin and Church of Na­tiv­i­ty Crys­tal Stream, Pe­tit Val­ley.

Q: In this post Car­ni­val Lenten sea­son what mes­sage would you like to give our pop­u­la­tion?

A: May the seed of the Spring­time Lent sown in re­treats, mis­sions, prayer ex­press­ing the hopes, as­pi­ra­tions de­sires of our peo­ple grow and bear fruit for our own good and the good of all our peo­ple.

Who were the peo­ple who have in­flu­enced you the most?

Peo­ple in the parish­es where I have served, es­pe­cial­ly the less well off taught me what it means to be a priest. Their trust in God for their dai­ly bread, the sac­ri­fices they made for oth­ers, their gen­eros­i­ty, good­ness, hu­mour, lit a light in my life.

Most peo­ple will not know what life as a priest is like, what would you say to them?

A priest's life can be lone­ly but it has its share of com­pen­sa­tion and re­wards. There is a joy in cel­e­brat­ing the Eu­charist, in preach­ing the good news of the Gospel, in min­is­ter­ing the sacra­ment of rec­on­cil­i­a­tion and in spend­ing time with the sick.

Tell us about your in­spi­ra­tion to join the priest­hood; at what age did you have your call­ing?

At the age of ten or 12 I felt at­tract­ed to the priests' way of life. When God wants you to do some­thing spe­cial he al­ways sends some­one in your path. My moth­er was in hos­pi­tal and one of her car­ers was a nurs­ing nun and vis­it­ing my moth­er this la­dy put her clutch­es on me and di­rect­ed me to a Do­mini­can priest friend of hers. That was it, I could not get away.

Tell our read­ers a cou­ple of fun­ny 'Tri­ni' ex­pe­ri­ences.

I was called to ap­pear at Ch­agua­nas court some time ago, my dri­vers per­mit had run its course. Tak­ing the ad­vice of some­one I knew, I ab­sent­ed my­self. The case was called, the name An­tho­ny Pan­tin was called (since at the time the in­sur­ances were on his name). A war­rant was is­sued for my ar­rest. More ad­vice... "Go to the court on Fri­day, speak to Mag­is­trate Loney and ex­plain. Go out and tell the sto­ry." Court packed. Court rise. A po­lice­man beck­oned me, I bow and pre­sent­ed my­self. You could go, he said and I slid out. On­ly in Trinidad I tell you! Of course, there is a lot more to this sto­ry but hope­ful­ly your read­ers will get the gist (laugh­ing). Then there was this time I had to give a state­ment re­lat­ed to a rob­bery when the Sun­day mis­sion col­lec­tion was snatched from me out­side the bank. I gave chase (I was much younger then), but he got away. I end­ed up in a po­lice ve­hi­cle on the way to the sta­tion. I re­mem­ber hear­ing some con­cerned by­standers lament­ing aloud, "Oh lawd dey ar­res' fad­der!" (laugh­ing out)

You have this rep­u­ta­tion as be­ing 'the singing priest'. Tell us some more about this.

The cred­it for what­ev­er I have achieved in mu­sic must be giv­en to Trinidad. It pro­vid­ed me with the op­por­tu­ni­ty to de­vel­op a tal­ent and for that I will be for­ev­er grate­ful. Daphne Clif­ford was a great in­flu­ence and with her en­cour­age­ment I took part in Mu­sic Fes­ti­vals, op­eras, light op­eras and recitals. Tread­ing the boards with the tal­ents of the likes of Robert Jais­ingh, Pat Flo­res, Ken Ox­ley, Mau­rice Brash, Boysie Bovell, Joslynne Sealey, Juli­et Eck­el, Bernadette Laugh­lin-Scott, Fritz Noth­nagel and Richard Ffrench were worth­while ex­pe­ri­ences and will al­ways be cher­ished mem­o­ries.

What ad­vice would you give to a young man who is won­der­ing about a vo­ca­tion such as yours?

In spite of the many con­trary at­trac­tions God still speaks to young peo­ple and the...is such. Come fol­low me and I will make you fish­ers of men. Je­sus is still ask­ing: What are you look­ing for Rab­bi, where do you live? Come and see. They spend the rest of the day with him. In serv­ing God and his peo­ple the young man would have the time of his life.

Where were you born and where did you grow up?

I was born on the banks of the Riv­er Lee one could not wish for a more beau­ti­ful, nat­ur­al en­vi­ron­ment to be born and raised in. Clean riv­er, fish, boats mak­ing their way up and down the riv­er.

What is your favourite meal or dish/food?

Cur­ry and Chi­nese food al­ways ac­cept­able and de­lec­table.

What would you say is your great­est virtue?

De­pend­abil­i­ty. Do­ing what I am sup­posed to be do­ing, when and where I am meant to be do­ing it.

What dai­ly mot­to do you live by?

If I can help some­body as I pass along, then my liv­ing will not be in vain.


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