Farewelling Frank O’Shea in Nairobi at a District Brother’s meeting 5th December 2020
Frank is departing East Africa after 26 years of service including initial months learning Kiswahili then 13 years in charge of Edmund Rice Secondary School Sinon Arusha; a break for a year and in Yambio South Sudan for 18 months and now over 10 years in Ruben Centre
Where can I start? Most of us find it hard to imagine that Frank O’Shea joined the Christian Brothers to be a “farm Brother” from the village of Purnim in Western Victoria, when Barry Callan was Vocation Promoter. That was January 1972 and a year after dropping out of Secondary School.
Frank may have left Australia in 1983 for Tonga but despite his absence from Australia, there were always Australian brothers seeking information about him whenever I would be back there.
There was a Brother Leopold Griffen whom Frank and I had the fortune to meet during our Novitiate formation. Every time I visited him on home visits, he showed a lot of interest in what was happening in East Africa, and what was Br O’Shea up to? Our meetings were always friendly and predictable but I am not sure what Frank shared with him on his visits, but I presume he must have been more provocative as when Leopold was asked how visits from Frank are, he recalled, “Outrageous but energising.”
Wherever Frank was there was energy.
Most will recall so many recent experiences and descriptions of Frank’s recent years in Ruben Centre. Much has changed there because of his energy, his creativity in responding to problems posed by the experience of the people, and his encouragement and trust of those he worked with. The maternity hospital, the radio station, the total rebuilds of the school, the employment bureau, the youth initiatives, the Ruben orchestra and many more.
Frank has always been a man of energy. He did everything in a whole hearted way.
Physically in sports he was a hard competitor; he did not play to lose. I played Australian football both with him and against him in the 1970s and 80s, and it was always easier with him on your side.
He is the only Brother I know who has represented two nations, Tonga and Tanzania (not power houses admittedly) in one sport (Cricket) at different times and he was not born in either of them! His other sporting prowess saw him appointed coach of the king of Tonga’s rowing Team in a Pacific nations 48 crew in a boat. The sport initiated by the eccentric King didn’t last long as the size of the boats was a logistic nightmare. Frank knew nothing about rowing but that didn’t deter him and he got the men fit and the events were in the harbour in the small island Frank lived on and so the field of candidates wasn’t large. They won their races against Samoa.
I remember having a beer with him in 1992 on my way home from studies in USA and now sheepishly recall throwing empty beer cans out of the Vava’u Boat Club window onto the beach below as we chatted about his future and his plans to pack up at the end of 1992.
Before that in the late 1970s, Frank was one of the inspirations behind the Edmund Rice Camps in Melbourne. If I remember Frank was completing his Physical Education degree at Philip Institute and during the school holiday time organised two summer camps at Parade College and these grew into an international Edmund Rice Camps movement. The first ones were at Parade for Vietnamese Refugees in Melbourne and he led these camps for two more subsequent years before heading off to Tonga. These camps became and still are a source of much good for the Leaders and the children who participate in them.
In 1995 he became Principal of Edmund Rice Secondary School Sinon. We are all familiar with his contribution there and to the school.
There were two occasions where death was cheated. A health scare with Anthrax which was poorly treated in Tanzania, and after two weeks of hospitalization full haemorrhaging occurred resulting is the need for several blood transfusions and being air lifted to a hospital in Nairobi. A year later a giraffe was hit in by a Shuttle Bus coming to Nairobi, and Frank and the other person in that seat got a direct hit. Both finished in the government hospital in Arusha. Unfortunately, the other man died of his injuries and two days later Frank walked out of the intensive care ward when no one was looking. He lived to tell how to this day, the bill has not been paid.
From Brother Leopold’s Necrology. “In 2008, I found Leopold at home in the Mt. Sion community and we were chatting and laughing away, when I invited him to my graduation. He looked perplexed and slightly amused. “You graduating? In what may I ask?” “Master’s in Education leadership from the Australian Catholic University and the ceremony is at Melbourne Town hall at 8.00 pm May 12th,” was my reply. He went quiet and uttered again, ‘You?” “Yes me, Leopold, and I am allowed two guests and you are to be one of those - I insist,” was my response. “For you. Br. O’Shea, I will.”
Not bad for an eighty plus year old who never went out at night and it reflects his capacity to make very real relationships.
Frank is always, direct, energetic, whole hearted, and someone you could rely on to be for the best interest of the people he served.
This can certainly be said for his years in East Africa. He has been very instrumental in setting standards for us as Brothers in the way we are present to the people we minister to.
Frank has seen Christ appealing to him through the eyes of the people in Arusha, in Yambio and in Mukuru kwa Ruben. His response has been inspirational to an old man like me and I hope to young brothers like you.
We thank you Frank for your contribution to the development of our District and the Province of Africa. We wish you well as you journey home, enjoy the farewells and certainly the welcome from family and friends in Australia.
By Tom Kearney
Edits: GB