• Comment
• Print
• E-mail

In the name of the Pope: A generation of John Pauls (and a Karol) reflect

Claire O'Mahony

John Paul Doran

John Paul Kehoe, pictured with his son Culann

John Paul Phelan

John Paul Foley

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4

"I was born on 30 September, the exact day the Pope came to Ireland, so I think it was a given I would be called after him. I think my mother never forgave me because she wasn't able to go see him," jokes John Paul Doran, originally from Kells. He says he was very aware of the religious connotations, growing up in a Catholic family, and says he himself goes to mass occasionally. "I think he'll be remembered fondly," he says of his namesake. "He did lots of great things for the third world and he did his best to strive towards world peace and to bring religion together although he was restricted by the church doctrines at the time."

Father of three John Paul Kehoe (pictured here with his son Culann) from Co Laois arrived a month before the Pope's visit and was always destined to be a 'John Paul', after both his grandfathers suggested the name. Growing up with the Pope's moniker wasn't an affliction. I always got a mention at mass on a Sunday although that's finished now. In general I'm known as JP, although people sometimes get it mixed up with PJ."

Youngest member of the Seanad and Fine Gael spokesman on enterprise, trade and employment John Paul Phelan was actually named for the first Pope John Paul. He was born the day before that pope died on 28 September, 1978. "There were heaps of John Pauls at schools," he remembers. "It didn't really register back then. If you called your child Benedict now, that would be a different matter." His entire family went to see the Pope while he was left in the care of an older cousin. "If the Pope came now, there would be a crowd too and I would certainly go. I'm not a hugely devout Catholic but it's some­thing that you're never going to see again."

John Paul Foley, a senior fund accountant from Galway, was actually born in 1982 but received the name as he was the next son born after the visit. "I think I was called 'The Pope' a few times in the early years of primary school but I have been called worse in my time," he jokes. "By the time I was in secondary school I was known as JP." Foley thinks John Paul II will always be a pope fondly remembered in Ireland but doubts a future papal visit would draw similar crowds, because of changing attitudes to religion.

In the midst of all the John Pauls, let's not forget the Karls and Karols named for the Pope's original Polish name. Karol Slattery was born on 2 October, 1979. "My dad and my grandparents went to Galway to see him, but obviously Mam was unable to go as I was due that weekend," he says. "Originally my parents were thinking of calling me John Paul but Mam didn't like the double-barrelled name. The weekend of his visit my Auntie Nuala was reading a newspaper article about the Pope and suggested that if Mam had a boy to call him Karol." Slattery caught Reeling in the Years 1979 on TV recently and was amazed. "It looked like the country had come to a standstill while he was here and it was interesting to see that he could only go as far as Drogheda for security reasons because of the Troubles."