Amanzimtoti Catholics look back on 100 years since church’s establishment

OUR Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church in Amanzimtoti held a dance on Saturday, 26 August to commemorate the 100th year since St Patrick’s Church was built.

Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church is situated at 24 Riverside Road in Amanzimtoti.

It is today the home of relics and remnants from St Patrick’s Church, which was demolished when the Umbogintwini Golf Course and surrounding land was sold to the developers of the Galleria Mall.

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First generation Irish settler, Noreen Kelly (93) poured over her memories of the initial days and the significant role that the church played in the establishment of the Umbogintwini Village through the decades.

In 1908 the men from Kynoch Factory in Arklow, a town in Ireland, were brought out to Durban to start up the explosive factory in Umbogintwini. They travelled to South Africa on the Castle Line Ships. When the men arrived in Durban, some had been allocated to houses while others were allocated to boarding houses.

From 1912, some of the wives and families arrived in South Africa while others followed a little later.

“During this time the management at Kynoch Ltd started to build houses in the Umbogintwini Village for the pioneers,” said Noreen. “As the houses were completed, the families started to move into the village. The majority of the pioneers were from Ireland and became known as ‘the men from Arklow’, while others came from England.”

Later, a wood and iron club house was built and a short distance away, a snooker room and then the beautiful little St Patricks Church. The church was built and a piece of land below it was allocated for a graveyard. The cemetery still remains at Umbogintwini, however ashes within the wall of remembrance were removed a few years ago and reinterred on the grounds of Our Lady Star of the Sea.

“All this was carried out by Kynoch Ltd, the only payment being 10 shillings per annum,” recalled Noreen. “This was referred to as a ‘book figure’. This was increased to R20 per annum in the 1980s. All electricity, water and maintenance were paid for by the company.”

The Catholic families donated all the essentials for the church, namely statues, the chalice, vases, a gong, bell, carpet leading down the aisle and more.

Noreen recalled how every Saturday the nuns from Holy Family Convent would travel out by train from Durban for Catechism classes.

“Classes would be held in the church and others under the trees in the church gardens,” said Noreen. “The priests serving St Patrick’s would travel out by trains to say mass. They would mainly travel from the Bluff and stay in a small room at the church. In later years a room was made available to them at the company staff house.”

The choir was always made up of the women in the church.

“We often wondered why the men were never invited, however it was always communal singing, everyone at full throttle,” said Noreen.

“There were two statues on either side of the altar, on the left a statue of Our Lady and on the right a statue of the Sacred Heart. All the women sat on the left side of the church and the men on the right. The first three pews on either side were reserved for the girls on the left and the boys on the right. The girls and boys would sit there until they had made their confirmation and then they would be ‘promoted’ to sit in the body of the church.”

Noreen said St Patricks was a focal point in the village life.

“After benediction on a Sunday evening, all would go to the club hall where all the other young people who were not Catholics would be waiting,” recalled Noreen. “The hall would be opened and two of our women congregants who played the piano, Kathleen O’Brien (nee Hughes) and Lillian Roche, would take turns to play and the dance began.

All ages from about eight years to the oldies would take to the floor and dance until 10.30pm when the doors closed.”

The St Patricks dance, held on the Saturday nearest to St Patrick’s Day, would open the dance season followed by the golf, tennis, cricket and soccer dances, where each section would be expected to support the next.

“This was always a great day in the village for all. Before the young men went off to play their various sports, they would congregate at the hall to decorate it for the dance, always with fairy daisies. The mothers and daughters would meet at the club library, which was adjourned to the club kitchen, to prepare the snacks for the dance, always sandwiches and trifles, mountains of sandwiches.

All the village children would gather at the windows to watch the dance, always having plates of sandwiches passed out to them,” said Noreen.

Then came September 1939 and along with it, World War 2, which changed everything.

“Most of our young men volunteered to go to war and over the months that followed the pews at mass became emptier,” she recalled. “There would be gatherings around the wireless in the homes at about 6.30pm every evening, listening to the bulletins to hear whether any of the ‘Twini boys’ had been reported missing or had been wounded in action.”

Noreen recalled Umbogintwini Village as a beautiful place, crystal clear in her memory forever.

“Everyone tended their gardens, and the company would arrange an annual garden competition. This added to the beauty of the village. Children played in the street. There were skipping groups from the young ones to the ‘champs’, as you grew older you progressed along the way.

There was hopscotch, marbles, long jump, and always a game of cricket with a paraffin tin for the wickets.”

In all these ways and more, St Patricks Church became the cornerstone of the Umbogintwini Village and all who lived there.

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