3rd July 1977,
I have been back here in Ireland on holidays after my first four years missionary work in Fiji. My mother had lovingly knitted a sweater to keep me warm during the notoriously inconsistent Irish summer. My father interrupted his lunch to go out to his prized garden and pick strawberries for my desert. I am relaxing in the warm welcome of my family.
The Columbans in Ireland are promoting The Far East magazine in the Irish-speaking West of Ireland. I attended an Irish-speaking secondary school so I volunteered to preach in Irish at all the Masses on the three Aran Islands off the coast of Galway.
Today I preached on Inish Mean (the middle island). I talked about Fijian culture - the great generosity and open hospitality there, the respect shown to elders and chiefs, the friendliness of the people. While talking about Fijian rituals I mentioned the importance of the tabua, the whale’s tooth. After Mass a man approached me and asked me if I wanted a whale’s tooth as he had one in his cupboard at home. I was delighted to accept. I was also curious to know how he came to own one. He told me the story:
“A few years ago a whale was beached here and died. The County Council tried to get rid of it as the stench was becoming unbearable. It was too big to bury but they thought that they could burn it because of the oil inside. However that failed. So we islanders agreed that for $1,000 we would get rid of it ourselves. We gathered with saws, axes, spades and shovels and hacked it apart. We buried parts, disposed of parts of it in the sea and a few of us took souvenirs. Part of the whale’s back bone is now a stool in the pub over there. I myself took this tooth home with me.” He showed me a poem he had written in Irish. It finished up describing the whale’s heart sailing back out to sea from where it had come.
P.S. A few years later while stationed in Lautoka city I met a young Fijian activist whose idealism impressed me. He was living hand to mouth but had fallen in love and wanted to get married. My Irish tabua was my contribution to his wedding.
by Fr. Frank Hoare
