Fr Michael Keane:FR MICHAEL Keane, who has died aged 86, was the founder of Knock Marriage Bureau, which was established to "attract young women to the west of Ireland from America, England and Dublin and introduce them to bachelors in five Connacht counties where men outnumber women by two to one".
A priest of the archdiocese of Tuam, Fr Keane founded the bureau in 1968.
A local paper reported the news under the headline, "Young curate plays Cupid". Publicity was generated by notices pinned up in church porches across the west of Ireland and advertisements placed in Old Moore's Almanac.
The bureau says it has facilitated more than 48,000 introductions, leading to 900 marriages.
Fr Keane said at the time that most rural men were shy and afraid to ask a girl for a date for fear of a refusal. “But I know many Irish girls in America and England who would come back to the west if they could meet a good go-ahead type with a medium-sized farm.” Explaining how the bureau worked, he said: “It’s a correspondence system, so men and women apply with a simple description of themselves and a recent photograph, and we do emphasise that the photograph should be good, because you don’t make a first impression a second time.”
A woman’s abstract was then sent to a man who was asked if he wanted to meet her. Asked why men should have first choice, Fr Keane pointed out that the woman had the last word because she decided if she wanted to meet the man.
After that, the aspiring couples made their own arrangements. “We are not matchmakers and there will be no bargaining about dowries.” As the bureau is under the patronage of the archbishop of Tuam, divorced or separated people are not allowed use it. Fr Keane felt this should be changed. “After all, the Orthodox Church does allow second marriages.”
Born in Claremorris, Co Mayo, in 1926, he was educated at St Jarlath’s College, Tuam, Co Galway, and St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. He was ordained in 1950.
He served in Cloonfad, Castlebar, Tullycross, Cashel, Kilkerrin, Carnacon and Willington, in the Dublin diocese.
In 1974, parishioners in Carnacon, Co Mayo, opposed his transfer as parish priest, maintaining that then archbishop Cunnane had imposed a new parish priest without consultation.
Appointed to Willington, Templeogue, in 1977, he differed with the parish priest over how he should carry out his duties. “I just wanted to do my work. But the bishop told me to put my feet up or go and play golf.” When Fr Keane rejected this advice, Archbishop Dermot Ryan stripped him of his priestly duties. Fr Keane sued but in 1980 abandoned his High Court action. In 1981 the District Court granted an ejectment order against him, and he was evicted from the Willington presbytery. He turned down a posting to Carraroe in his home diocese.
In 1986, along with Fr Pat Buckley and others, Fr Keane picketed a meeting of the hierarchy in Swords, Co Dublin, demanding a greater say for the laity in church affairs. A year later, in a letter to this newspaper, he joined in criticism of the Vatican’s appointment of Msgr John Magee as bishop of Cloyne.
In 1992, as the X case unfolded, he wrote letters criticising aspects of church teaching on abortion.
He was in favour of married priests and said he would like to have been married himself. He also supported the ordination of women. In December 2000, following appeals by parishioners, he was formally reinstated at a Mass in St Jude’s Church, Templeogue, concelebrated by Bishop Eamon Walsh.
Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary this week said: “Fr Michael was a man dedicated to his priestly ministry for the past 61 years. He was singleminded and committed, often willing to make a strong stand in matters of principle. He was passionate in his belief in the sanctity of life and the promotion of the sanctity of marriage.”
He is survived by sister-in-law Ita, nephews and nieces.
Michael Keane: born January 8th, 1925; died August 27th, 2011
*This article was amended on September 8th, 2011