~ compiled by Yu Fong-ying ('61)
18 letters from Mr. Patrick O’Flanagan (teacher of English and English Literature at Wah Yan College Kowloon, 1960-1963, 1966-1972) to Yu Fong-ying (student at WYK, 1955-1963 and at Hong Kong University, 1963-1966) during the time period of July 1963 to September 1966
Introduction
Mr. Patrick J. O’Flanagan joined Wah Yan College Kowloon as an English teacher in the 1960-61 school year. He was about 26 years old, from the city of Limerick, Ireland, like Fr. McCarthy and Fr. Coghlan. He studied in the National University of Ireland in Dublin. Fr. Coghlan introduced him to Fr. Farren who was the headmaster then. From 1961 to 1963, among many other duties, he taught English Literature at the Advanced Level to the second cohort of Form 6 Arts. That’s when he became my teacher.
In February 1964, he left for Japan to take up a lecturing post at Sophia University. The letters he wrote to me spanned a three-year period, from 1963 to 1966, when we had both just left Wah Yan. He was, for the most part during that time, a new lecturer at a university in Tokyo, and I a new undergrad in Hong Kong.
The purpose of publishing these letters is to pay tribute, belatedly, to a very caring, generous, learned and dedicated teacher, and to acknowledge the huge debt I owe him in his financial help, his guidance and his imparting of the love and knowledge of literature. Because of him, I took up teaching English as my career, and have been teaching for 45 years up to now. He returned to teaching at Wah Yan Kowloon from 1966 to 1972, but left to go back to Limerick. From then on, we lost touch with each other. He passed away in 1995, aged 61.
From November 11th to 13th this year, the Class of ’61 will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of our graduation from Wah Yan College Kowloon. I would like the publication of these letters to serve as one way of marking my profound gratitude to our Alma Mater (meaning in Latin “nourishing mother”) whose team of inspiring teachers nourished us.
I would like to thank Fr. Naylor and Fr. Coghlan sincerely for telling me about Patrick (or Padrig as he was known to them) and supplying me with background information . Wong Hin Shing, our untiring Unofficial Archivist, went through past numbers of The Shield for information at my request: I am very grateful to him.
Lastly, a word on protocol: The letters and notes are about 45 years old, five years shy of the general 50-year rule. But Mr. O’Flanagan passed away more than 10 years ago, and nothing in the content (except in one case, which has been dealt with) could have any undesirable effect on anyone. This was another consideration in the timing of the publication, and I have had the blessing of Fr. Coghlan in this matter. Fr. Coghlan had known Padrig since primary school days. The letters will be uploaded onto the WYKAAO website, where the words will speak enduringly for the man.
Yu Fong-ying
Vancouver
1 November, 2011; revised 17 April, 2013.
P.S. I plan to write some reminiscences about Mr. O’Flanagan. If other students would like to share theirs with me, I should be very glad to receive them. They can send them to my email address:
Click here to read all the 18 letters.