The mind's eye

Focuses on the special bond between father and son, Judge Frederick Dolan and Monsignor Fred Dolan. Reflections on their Irish heritage; Influence of events from the past on the kind of men they have become; How the stories of their ancestors influenced their own lives and relationships.

By PT Staff, published on September 01, 2001

Meet Fred Dolan and Fred Dolan. Father and son. Judge and priest. A few yearsago, these two Irish-Americans attended Mass in County Cork, Ireland. The men reflected on their Irish past and their bond with each other as they walked through the village cemetery, where victims of Ireland's 19th-century famine were buried. They share their thoughts from that day with psychologist Janice Levine, Ph.D.

Judge Frederick Dolan: I thought of my grandfather Michael, a fine tinker from County Roscommon, who tinkered in his shack without an address on a lane without a name. I also thought of my grandmother Bridget from Galway. Several of her children had died from the flu. A neighbor saw my grandmother hanging laundry on the clothesline after the children were buried. The neighbor asked my grandmother how she could be hanging laundry when the babies had just died. Grandmother said that the house was full of survivors and life had to go on.

Monsignor Fred Dolan: My father had put together our family tree, and I shared it with local villagers who pointed out a saddle shop owned by a descendant of one of my ancestors. The contact with my roots swept me along like a tidal wave.

Judge: My son knew from an early age that he wanted to be a priest. It was a very serious game he played with his brothers and sisters, who served as the congregation. He was dressed in homemade vestments pretending to say Mass and handing out Holy Communion in the form of chocolate chip cookies.

Monsignor: When I was a young altar server, my father would accompany me to early morning Mass. He often remarks that when he attends Mass at 7 in the morning in Washington, D.C., he pictures me at the altar in Montreal, celebrating at the very same hour.

Earlier that day in County Cork the Dolan family gathered at the baptism of their newest member. Later, father and son stole away to the village cemetery to reflect on their Irish heritage. Their bond is as deep as their ancestral roots and has shaped them into the men they've become. As they concelebrated Mass on Irish soil, both were moved as the local priest tried to reconstruct the lives beneath the graves. Who were these people and how might they connect the Dolans with their past? Psychologists know that events from generations past exert a powerful influence over who we become. Perhaps these stories may reveal the missing links that connect past to present and unwittingly shape the father's and son's own lives and relationships.