Tommie Cusack was born to Michael and Delia (nee Heaphy ) on October 23rd 1910 in Ballycotton, Liscannor, Co Clare. Both his parents taught in Ballycotton N.S. and the family lived in the Teachers’ Residence there. They had six children, Violet, Tommie, Michael, Joe, Pauline and Nick. Tommie was their second child.

He was baptised in St Bridget’s Church, Liscannor on October 26th 1910 by Father Burke Adm.

 

 

Tommie attended Ballycotton National School from 24th of October 1913 until 30th of June 1924
The 24th of October 1913 was the day after his 3rd birthday which is why he was not officially on the Roll Book for that year.

We don’t know a lot about his childhood years except that our parents always spoke about what a lovely place Ballycotton was to grow up in and they maintained close contact with their friends there until they died. It was a small close-knit community, well off the beaten track, and the families were close to each other. Our Mother described how the children from Ballycotton used to meet and play in the school yard in the summer evenings.
Nora Sheridan’s Mother, Susan Carroll, who lived across the road from Cusacks, told her that once when the Ballycotton children were walking down to Children’s’ Confession, Tommie’s Mother gave him two bottles and asked him to fill them with Holy Water so that she could bless the house and garden. Tommie forgot and when he was almost home he filled them from a nearby well and gave them to his mother who sprinkled the water all around. Susan said, “It worked just fine. Tommie Cusack was full of the devil when he was young.”
When he had completed his primary school education in Ballycotton, Tommie attended St Mary’s College, Galway and went on to join the Society of St Columban in Dalgan Park, Shrule, in 1928. This had always been his dream. In a letter to Dalgan Park, written on Feb 20th 1928, his mother wrote:
“For some years back he has set his heart on going to China and though we do not mean to place any obstacle against his going there, still we would much prefer he would go for a home mission.“

And again:
“When he was home at Xmas I spoke of all the dangers attached to the mission but nothing would change him.”

The final sentence of that letter reads: “I hope it will do to fill up the form when he comes home at Easter as I would like to have another talk with him over it before finally deciding.”

 

Tommie was ordained in Dalgan Park on December 21st 1934

THE CLASS OF 1934 WHO WERE ORDAINED ON 21 DECEMBER 1934
IN
DALGAN PARK, SHRULE, CO. MAYO

Tommie said his first Mass in St Bridget’s Church, Liscannor on the 22nd of December 1934.

He baptised Sean Healy on the 8th August 1935 in Liscannor Church. Seán was the only Irish person to be baptised by Tommie.

He was assigned to Korea in 1935

IN A REPORT WRITTEN IN 1959, MONSIGNOR OWEN MCPOLIN RECALLS TOMMIE’S EARLY YEARS IN KOREA:

“On arrival in Korea he began the study of the language along with the rest of the young priests who came with him that year. They all, as is the custom, spent about six months in the central house of the Mission getting the rudiments of the language, the alphabet and an elementary grasp of the structure of the language.

Korean is utterly unlike any western language save Finnish and Hungarian and there were no handbooks for beginners. The only way to learn the language is by the so called “direct method” that is by listening and by phrases. To do this one must be a good mixer with natives and be prepared to make many ridiculous mistakes to the amusement of the Koreans. One meets sometimes, a shy kind of missioner who “will not speak the language until he knows it” – as a wit put it. This sort of man makes slow progress.

Father Cusack was one of those who began to speak the language before he knew it. He was one of those who just cannot live with people without being able to speak to them and getting acquainted with them. From the outset, therefore, Father Cusack had the temperament of a good missionary. His subsequent success simply confirmed this.”

Monsignor McPolin continues with a description of Tommie’s missionary work in San Jeong Dong, Mokpo where he and Father Frank Woods were curates.

“Father Cusack whose progress in the language was almost phenomenal for the reasons already noted, was soon able to take on his share of the work. In the older days, when missionaries were scarce, the outlying missions were visited only once a year. Now we had a good supply of young men and besides, the Japanese had improved means of communication and we began to visit the islands more frequently. In addition to an ideal temprament and more than average mental ability, Father Cusack had a magnificent physique and was soon able to take his share in the visitation of the outlying mission stations (he was also the curate). He appeared to really enjoy the Pauline journeys. He had too, a keen sense of humour, a quality the Koreans have to a high degree. They always get your wavelength and go one better”.

From 1939 to 1941 Tommie was Pastor of Chaw Jeong Dong Parish in Sunchon City.

The early years of the Columban Fathers in Korea were dominated by harassment from the Japanese who occupied Korea.

Monsignor McPolin describes Tommie’s frustration with the Japanese very well in his letter.

"One thing Father Cusack could never get used to was the Japanese police system. Not that the police in “peace time” were brutal, but their manners were bad. You were tailed everywhere you went and questioned as to who you were, where you came from, where you were going and on what business. The policeman, to impress the bystanders would often address you in the lowest literary form of language. You got your own back by answering him in the same idiom while the bystanders sniggered at the policeman’s discomfiture. His next question would then be in a higher form and you answered him in that form; finally the highest form was reached and the policeman came out the loser.
Father Cusack enjoyed these encounters. But often the policeman, when you got out of a bus or boat would put his hand on your shoulder and lead you aside for questioning. Father Cusack could never get used to this; he often told me that he boiled internally, but never over, when the policeman put his hand on his shoulder."

Japan entered the world conflict in December, 1941and on December 7th all 22 of the Columban Priests working in Korea were interned. (See Interned in Korea by Father Joseph O’Brien. The Far East August 1946)

All the priests who were interned in Korea had a story to tell. This is what Monsignor Owen McPolin, who was also interned, wrote about Tommie:

“This self control (see above ) was never more needed than when the Japanese declared war on December 8th 1941. That night we were all arrested and lodged in the local lockup for our “protection” and for questioning. Priva facie we were all foreign spies or at least enemy subjects and our political status had to be gone into, and our houses thoroughly searched for documents etc.

Our position was complicated by the fact that our Mission territory was along the coast of the China Sea and the Japanese strait and in this area the Japanese Navy had control of the ordinary civilian police. This was bad for the missioners stationed on the coastal towns and on the islands. These priests were supposed to have gathered information about harbours and airfields.

On orders of the Navy the civilian police trumped up charges against them for being seen in the neighbourhood of an airfield. One was imprisoned for 2 years, another for 3 and one for the duration of the war. The rest of us were released from the local lockups and interned in the central residence of Mokpo for the duration of the war. On the whole, the police were as decent as they could be in the circumstances and we had nothing to complain about save the confinement and interrogations which were for the most part a battle of wits and not without a comic aspect. Much depended on the character of the local police chief.

In this connection Father Cusack was rather unfortunate. He was not stationed in a coastal town but about ten miles from an important harbour. The priest stationed at the harbour town was a Korean and on account of his association with the foreigners was “pulled in” for questioning. Apparently in the course of the interrogation he admitted that he had seen Mongolian ponies being loaded at the port. He is also supposed to have admitted that he had mentioned this to Father Cusack who was interrogated about the incident. Father Cusack said he had no recollection of the pony incident at all and stuck to this answer through days of repeated questioning.

Father Cusack told me this was the truth, despite the rule “deny everything”. Anyhow we had no military information and we kept out of politics, but we had to be careful when questioned about supposed conversations with Koreans.

The attitude of the local police towards Father Cusack was that he was a liar and a spy. Besides, Father Cusack was alone. At the end of two months he was taken to the capital city of the province having been told that he was being taken there to be shot as a spy.

Now, all of us had been released from the local lockups at the same time and brought up to the capital for final disposition. When Father Cusack arrived at the capital he was brought to the mission residence and left with the rest of us. The story about being brought to be shot was a Japanese police joke and a “bit of innocent merriment” which Father Cusack despite his keen sense of humour did not appreciate at all.

After the arrival of the American army a Catholic Korean and an ex-official of the town government during the Japanese regime got hold of the records of Father Cusack’s two months of interrogation and translated the records into Korean. Everyone who read the record said Father Cusack’s answers were a masterpiece of evasion and equivocation; he seldom gave a straight answer to any question – “nec talis passus Ulysses Cblitusve sai est Ithacus discrimine tauto”!
One who knew Father Cusack’s intelligence, wit and courage physical and moral would expect nothing less from him.”

Tommie did not talk a lot about this time. The biggest heartbreak of all for him was the news of his brother Michael’s death which he did not hear about until February 1946 when he got his first letter from home after the war.

Tommie’s brother Michael was Third Engineer on the Irish Pine. He was killed on 15th November 1942 when the Irish registered vessel "The Irish Pine" was attacked and torpedoed without warning by a German Submarine. The Irish Pine immediately sank with the loss of all 33 crew.

He wrote: “It’s just a month since I got the news about Micho, it was terrible as Micho and I were more than brothers, I can’t realize it and I suppose I never will. I had been looking forward to seeing him and when I was in the “lock up” I used just sit down and plan out how I would call there on my way from Galway to Tramore.”

Tommie’s sister Pauline remembers hearing the following from Tommie: 

• During the two months that the priests were in the lockup none of them had any chance of openly saying Mass. They used to save a few grains of rice from their food and try to say Mass in their cells.
• They used silently anoint any priests whom they saw being taken out of their cells for questioning because they didn’t know if they would be killed or not.
• The endless drip, drip, dripping of water “could drive you mad.”
• Tommie used to sing “How Are Things in Glocamorra” which is why it is so special in our family.

When they were under house arrest:

• They used bread soda to brush their teeth and that their teeth were in splendid shape after the war.
• Tommie learned to read and write fluent Korean during this time.

1945 - March 1946: Tommie was again Pastor of Chaw Jeong Dong Parish in Sunchon City.
March 1946 - 1947: Fr. Tommie Cusack was Pastor of Pouk Dong parish in Kwangju City.
In one of his first letters home Tommie wrote:
“If the war had gone another month most of us would have died. However, we have been making up for it since. Five priests have gone home sick and we are a bit shorthanded at present. After the war I got back to my old parish and had just got it going nicely again, when I was changed to this parish to take over from a priest who had to go home with T.B.”

 

Dec 1947 – 1948: After twelve years in Korea Tommie came home at Christmas 1947 and was home during all of 1948. His Mother had moved to Tramore after his Father’s death in 1938. During his time in Ireland Tommie spent time with all his family and visited Ballycotton.

Mary Anne Costello, who was Mary Anne Carroll before she married and whose family lived across the road from Tommie’s family, shared this beautiful memory with me:
“I have a clear picture of being told when he was coming to the school by the teachers and bringing the news home. While his visit to the school was short he gave us a “Day off” the next day.

He visited all the neighbours that afternoon and he was still visiting our home when P.J. and I got in from school that afternoon. He was sitting in my Grandmother’s armchair beside a big open fire holding our three yr. old sister. He then took the two of us on his knee and began telling us stories of growing up in Ballycotton. Going to school with our uncles and coming home with them, having dinner with them and going out and about in the field after the cattle and cows. He told us about the poverty in Korea. The children being left at his doorstep screaming with hunger as there was no milk to be got for them. However his housekeeper took them in and he managed to get milk for them. Sometimes he had them for two or three days at a time. This went on for some time with him feeding them. I think he wanted to let us know how well off we were, having plenty of food and milk in our own homes despite shortages of certain things during the war years. He also told us then of his period in jail. How starved and cold he was there. The great trouble he had trying to celebrate Mass when he was allowed. He prayed and prayed so hard while he was there and he felt the power of prayer helped release him from prison eventually.

The gentleness, the warmth and the kindness in his voice will stay with me forever.

Now while he was chatting with us, the house was filling up with the neighbours. Mam was busy feeding everyone. My last memory before going to bed was seeing the kitchen packed with all the people. The three of us finally went to bed but the chat went on all night until the early hours of the morning: Then Dad, Tommie Mac and Martin Sheedy walked with him all the way to Liscannor to Sexton’s house where he was staying. The news of his brutal murder a few years later shattered them. They spoke frequently of him until their own passing.”

1949 - July 1950: He returned to Korea and was Pastor of San Jeong Parish in Mokpo. He had 2 curates, Father Jack O Brien and Father Pat Lohan.

In a letter to Mary Nagle he wrote:
“There is a big number of conversions at present, there are well over three hundred catechumen under instruction in the town and it takes eight catechists all their time to get through them. About 150 catholic children come for catechism every evening and there is a general instruction for catechumens four times a week as well. The Bishop is sending three native nuns here in August, so I had to get a house ready for them. Well Mary, I wish you could see it, it’s a real dolls’ house but it is a beauty.
How long the peace will last here nobody knows. I saw on the paper a few days ago where in one diocese in North Korea the Bishop with all his priests and nuns are in jail and everything belong to them has been confiscated by the Reds; if those Reds ever get this far we are going to have trouble, some of the foreigners in this part of the country don’t hold out much hope. However, we have to keep pushing while we can, in a place like this if we were to wait till things settle down we would never start.”
On December 11th 1949 Tommie wrote to his mother:
“This time twelve months it was a good Christmas (he was at home in Ireland), still I’m happier here; it is wonderful to be back at work again; it is the best life of the lot.”

1950 – Sept 24th Tommie was killed at the Massacre of Prisoners at Taejon.

Nine years after The Massacre at Taejon Fr Dan Conneely, a lifelong friend of Tommie’s wrote: “It will be appropriate in this, the twenty-fifth anniversary year of Fr Cusack’s ordination to the priesthood, to recall his captivity and death at Communist hands, and the spirit in which he met them." The following is the final paragraph from that article:

 “Fr. Cusack the Man
I set out to speak of Fr. Cusack and found that the story of the last months of his life is inseparably interwoven with the story of others who shared his captivity. I end with a paragraph exclusive to himself.
He was of medium height and very strongly built. His intelligence was above average, with a bias towards the practical. In judgement he was deliberate and shrewd. He was respected, from his student days onwards, for his strong sense of duty and his sound but unostentatious piety. He was cheerful and good-humoured, and it was his nature to be kindly. He was sent to Korea in 1935 and is said to have picked up the language easily and quickly-principally, we are told, because of the freedom with which he mixed among the Koreans. He was to die in the sixteenth year of his priesthood, and the some of his active missionary years is considerably less when you subtract his nearly four years of internment under the Japanese. Yet, even while he lived, his industry had become a legend; the Koreans called him “the Iron Man” for it; and a young colleague, writing of him in the year of 1959, tells us: “I had never met, and have never met since, any priest anywhere, who handed over, day in, day out, his time and his privacy to his people so completely. He never eased off, yet you could never visit him without seeing that you were really welcome; and he never forgot to ensure that his curates took time out to relax.”
“Honest,” “straightforward,” “sincere,” “single-minded.” “courageous, morally and physically” . . . the testimonies to him as a true man and a true priest are universal; and one feels now as one felt nine years ago, that the particular kind of death God sent him crowned quite naturally the life that preceded it.”

DAN CONNEELY

The full article is in the section "Articles and Letters".

Please click here to read about the Captivity and Deaths of Monsignor Pat Brennan, Fr Tommie Cusack, and Fr Jack O’Brien.