Harry Browne

Religion had a huge influence on all aspects of our lives. Being Catholics we were not allowed to associate too closely with Protestants for fear that they might contaminate the purity of our religion. There were a number of protestant families in our street. Blackers, Butlers and Goughs are names which I can recall. To enter a protestant church risked eternal damnation and the final verse of the Our Father “For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory” could not be spoken aloud in Catholic company.

Protestants had a reputation of being better workers than Catholics, deserved or not.
Our next door neighbour a Mrs Blacker, who was good friends with my mother, used to wash the front steps once a fortnight. She scrubbed the steps with soap and a scrubbing brush until they reached an acceptable standard in her eyes. Late at night my mother would brush our steps with water and bleach, the result was invariably much better than Mrs Blacker’s. My mother never told her the trick of using bleach. The poor woman must have been very put out.

First Communion was received in St Francis Xavier's Church in Gardiner Street in the Ignatian Chapel. Some days before the event we all went in a crocodile to the chapel for a rehearsal. Instead of a host we had a mint sweet placed on our tongue. We were given to understand that to chew the host and, by extension, the mint sweet was a serious sin and a cause for confession. One of my classmates was so bold as to nip back to the end of the line and receive a second sweet. We thought that he would be blasted by a thunderbolt from Heaven. After the communion we went back to the school for milk and buns while our parents assembled at the top of the class and gazed fondly on their adorable angels.

The best part of First Communion was the money given by neighbours and relatives afterwards. It was a cause of great competition to tell afterwards the amount of money so gained. The person with the biggest purse was considered very lucky.