FROM ORPHAN TO RECTOR OF MONKSTOWN
DUBLIN RECTOR PUBLISHES HIS MEMOIRS

On Thursday 6 February, 2003 ‘That Could Never Be’ A Memoir, by the Revd Kevin Dalton, Rector of Monkstown, written with the Revd Patrick Semple, was launched by Minister of State Mary Hanafin, in The Rotunda at City Hall, Dublin.

In the book Kevin Dalton tells a very unusual story. Born in 1932 to an unmarried Catholic mother, he was baptised in St Nicholas of Myra Catholic Church, Dublin, and within two months, Nellie Dalton and her son had moved into a Protestant mother and baby home.

At the age of two he was placed in Muss Carr’s Home, a Protestant orphanage on Dublin’s Northbrook Road, where he was very happy and where his mother continued to visit him.

When he was nine he was moved to the Havergal Boys’ Home in Limerick where there was a very tough regime. One source of relief, however, was the holidays which he spent with Captain and Mrs Kemmis, an Anglo–Irish gentry family, near Rathdrum. Co Wicklow.

The book describes Kevin’s life in these different places and details his efforts to find work when he left the care of the Havergal Home. Throughout his childhood Kevin harboured ambitions to be ordained and despite one unforgettable occasion when Mrs Kemmis told him ‘that could never be’ the book goes on to trace how eventually he succeeded in his ambition and was ordained in 1966.

The book deals with his work in the ministry as a curate in Stillorgan and later as Rector of Drumcondra & North Strand, concluding with a chapter on his life as Rector of Monkstown.

‘That Could Never Be’ A Memoir, by Kevin Dalton with Patrick Semple, is published by Columba Press, priced €12.99/£8.99.

- ENDS –

With the compliments of the Diocesan Communications Officer 12/02/03

THE CHURCH OF IRELAND DIOCESES OF DUBLIN & GLENDALOUGH
DIOCESAN COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER VALERIE JONES
TEL: 01-4935 405/087-2356 472 (H) 01-4946 202 FAX: 01-4944 720
E-mail:dco@dublin.anglican.org