Letter: Ushaw College Cemetery and Daniel Hennessy

As today is the Feast of St Cuthbert, I was very interested to read the report about Ushaw College and am delighted to hear that the Cemetery at the rear of the College is now in a good condition thanks to the hard work of the members of St Cuthbert's Society of Ushaw College. (See: "ICN Tuesday, September 2, 2014 4:08 pm - Ushaw calls for volunteers as College prepares to open to public" www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=25474 )

I first visited Ushaw very briefly in 1980 and revisited it in the late 1980's when the Old Roman Association held its AGM there.

On that occasion I visited the grave of Daniel Hennessy in the Cemetery.

Daniel Hennessy was one of the first seminarians sent by the Diocese of Brentwood to study in Ushaw. He was a childhood friend and contemporary of Cardinal John Heenan. They grew up in the parish of Saints Peter & Paul in Ilford, Essex and attended the Parish Elementary School before they both transferred to the Jesuit-run St Ignatius College, Stamford Hill for their secondary education.

John Heenan went to Ushaw for his 6th Form in 1922 - and Hennessy joined him the following year. Having completed his 6th Form studies, Heenan was transferred to the English College Rome in 1924.

Three years later it was decided to transfer Hennessy to Rome - where he & Heenan would once again have been fellow students.

But before he was able to go to Rome, Hennessy died in Ushaw - apparently of malnutrition.

Cardinal Heenan wrote in the first volume of his autobiography: "His father, a senior civil servant, was convinced that the Ushaw food had killed his son....He was persuaded that his son had contracted a disease of the same family as beri-beri," (John Carmel Heenan "Not the Whole Truth" - ISBN 0240168269 - page 37)

Many years later one of Daniel Hennessy's sisters was a teacher in St Augustine's School, Barkingside, Ilford which I attended - as did my three siblings. My mother also taught there and so knew Miss Hennessy as a colleague.

Daniel Hennessy's family had never got over his death. So I was very pleased to be able to visit his grave in the late 1980's and to pray for him - and for his heartbroken family.

However when I re-visited Ushaw a few years ago, I was very sad to discover that the headstones had subsequently been removed from the graves and re-located on a wall - presumably to facilitate cutting the grass - and the graves were no longer marked .

So Daniel Hennessy's body was then in an unmarked grave - and may still be today.

By contrast his friend John Carmel Heenan is buried in Westminster Cathedral.

I do hope that the remedial work that has recently been done to Ushaw Cemetery also means that the headstones have now been returned to their rightful positions.

Fr Francis Coveney