Fr Mallin entered the Irish Jesuit novitiate in September 1932.
When I asked Fr Mallin why he entered the Society of Jesus he told me that he was very moved by an article written by an American Jesuit about his father in 1917. His brother, Sean, had entered the Society a few years earlier than he.
I recalled for him the fact that very soon he would be celebrating his ninety-ninth birthday and asked him what his health was like. He told me that he had always had good health. The only problem had been that he had broken bones eight or nine times playing football or because of rushing or falls when walking in the hills. When I asked him if he had any advice for young people in their late teens in Ireland he said that he had been out of the country for so long that he didn’t think he had any advice that might be useful or relevant. When I pressed him he said he would tell them to hold on to what they believe and to be like the man who, when asked if he would like to win the Sweep, answered, “I wouldn’t because if I did I might get to like money.”
Fr Mallin has no memories of his father because he was only two and a half years old when his father was executed. He told me that his mother was a very brave woman. He didn’t tell the children very much about their father or speak very much about him. She didn’t want a dark and sad shadow hanging over their lives. She tried to let them experience as normal a family life as possible.
Fr Mallin enjoyed life in the novitiate in Emo very much because it was in the country. It has been noticed that he was an expert tree climber.
He believes that he was sent to Hong Kong because he had always had good health and because he spoke Irish fluently. It was reasoned that he would learn Chinese well too.
He arrived in Guangzhou in early September 1948. In May 1949 the Jesuits had to leave the city for Hong Kong due to the advance of the Chinese Liberation Army. Hong Kong in the late 1940s was not in good shape. Fr Mallin didn’t have much time to explore his new home because he had to take over the top floor of the Paris Foreign Mission Society house. Fr Mallin didn’t find it difficult to adapt to the new life and culture. He was pitched head first into dealing with all kinds of people – architects and builders and suppliers and cooks and cleaners. He supervised several constructions or building conversion jobs and had to arrange for the temporary accommodation of many Jesuits expelled from Mainland China after the Communists takeover. He feels that at that time he did overwork.
I asked Fr Mallin if he regretted anything about leaving Ireland. He said he would like to have had some more time working as a priest in Ireland. He said he also missed the rain in Ireland!
When I asked him if he had any experiences that he particularly remembered he told me of two. On the ship out to Hong Kong the Catholic super-cargo died. He was asked to conduct the burial service. It was a very moving experience he said. The captain was most helpful. The other experience he recalled was one night very late when a phone call came from the Queen Mary Hospital asking for a priest to come to attend a dying patient. He went down to the street and stopped a taxi. The driver got him to the hospital very quickly. When Fr Mallin thanked him the driver replied, “I am a Moslem. My father told me that if a Catholic priest stopped me in the middle of the night to go to a hospital I should drive like the wind because it was very important.”
Finally when I asked him how he relaxed, he replied that he was always relaxed. He added, however, that he slept and that he used to like walking in the hills especially with Fr Paddy Finneran. When he was working in Macao he read a lot of books by such writers as Tolstoy. He also played the flute. His father’s flute and watch were given to him. They are now in the National Museum in Dublin.
[Father Mallin and our East Wing]
