TheHallowian-2021Vol2 - Flipbook - Page 7
160 STORIES
The Only Boy Ever ‘Enrolled’ at All
Hallows’ School!
A recollection of Francis Gerard Hennessy, son of Kathleen Hennessy (Andersen) as told
to his daughter, Tricia Parry, Class of 1980
“As a student of St Joseph’s College, Gregory Terrace, I naturally took more than a passing
interest in some of the young ladies who attended All Hallows’ School. My mother, Kathleen
Hennessy (Andersen), a past pupil of AHS and a fine musician, was close friends with a number
of the Sisters of Mercy in the Convent, and we often took them on picnics and other approved
gatherings.
Our family was very involved in tennis, something that my youngest sister Rebecca Devitt and
in the following generation, my own three daughters, Tricia Parry, Karen Young and Monique
Leadon, all continued the family tradition.
So it came as a complete but not unpleasant surprise when Sister Mary Consilio contacted Mum,
requesting the help of our family, or more specifically, me!
Sister Mary Consilio wondered whether I, Francis Gerard Hennessy, member of the Terrace
First Four, would consider coming to All Hallows’ in the afternoons to have a ‘hit out’, and be a
practise partner for the young ladies of the AHS A Grade Tennis Team.
My response was ‘I most certainly would’.
You see, Sister Mary Consilio oversaw the AHS Tennis Program and she was absolutely
determined that her girls would fully prepped to win the prestigious Catholic Secondary Girls
Tennis Competition, a feat that All Hallows’ had achieved regularly.
This became a regular commitment for me, first walking over from Terrace, and then later from
Teachers’ College, to carry out my duties under the watchful eye of Sister Mary Consilio. There
were, however, some advantages to this arrangement. As the only lad on the AHS grounds,
I did not face the usual competition when it came to
organising invitations to dances, socials etc – and not just
for myself, but for all our friends as well.
I must admit, when Sister first referred to me jokingly
as the ‘only boy who was enrolled here at All Hallows’,
I was somewhat taken aback. But it soon became her
affectionate response. Whenever I greeted her with
‘Good Afternoon Sister and May God Bless You’, she
would reply with ‘Good Afternoon Francis, our only boy
on the AHS rolls’, and then direct me to the tasks of the
day.
I remember those days with great fondness. I remember
the ‘thwack’ of tennis balls hitting the old wooden
racquets while orchestral music drifted down from the
Concert Hall, and I, the only boy ever enrolled at All
Hallows’ , did my best to upholding the values of the
AHS motto - God and Duty, instilled in me by my dear,
beautiful mother, Kathleen.”
Francis Hennessy, pictured far right
2021 | The Hallowian
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