Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.....

Seven – Lucky for Some.....

When the time came for Mrs. Doyle to give birth to her seventh child, her husband Dan and his six brothers and indeed his six other children, all boys, gathered around the house in great anticipation and indeed expectation.   For if his wife Mary gave birth to a boy, (with the help of God as Dan had been saying for the previous eight months), he would surely be born with ‘the gift’.

When the old woman helping in the birth opened the bedroom window and screamed at the top of her lungs “Tis a boy”, the celebrations began in earnest.   As most of the family made their way to Murphy’s Pub to ‘wet the baby’s head’, Dan walked slowly down to the local Church and prayed.

He had heard that the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son – a line of fourteen boys unbroken by the birth of a girl – on some rare occasions could be blessed with the gift of healing.   They could also be haunted by an evil disposition.    He prayed for all that he was worth that things would not come to that....................

Dan never went to the pub that night.   In fact he seldom drank alcohol at all but on this night in particular, he wanted to be stone cold sober when he saw his latest son for the first time.

As he began to make his way slowly back home, he began shivering.   It was not that the night was cold; it was just that he was as nervous as he had been when his first son was born.    He prayed as he walked that the child and Mary his wife were both healthy................

He entered the house quietly and removed his heavy boots.   As he climbed the stairs to the bedroom he passed Mrs. Hegarty the midwife on her way down.    “Don’t worry yourself one little bit Mr. Doyle, sure Mary is as strong as a horse and her and the young one are both fine”.    As he entered the bedroom he was quite shocked to see Mary sitting up in bed cuddling the newborn baby.

“Are you well sweetheart?” he asked quietly.   “Fine Dan, just fine.    Have a look at your new son, and if I have any say in the matter, your last one”.   She began to laugh and Dan joined in until the child began to cry.    “And what are we going to call him Mary?” he asked her.    “I think that since you would not have any of the other boys named Daniel after yourself, all I ask is that he be called Daniel.   Not Dan: for as sure as God if I ever hear him being called Dan or indeed him answering to that  name,  I’ll  crucify  the one responsible”.    Dan could tell that Mary was serious.

And so it was that when they all attended the Church ten days later and Daniel Ignatius Doyle was welcomed and Christened into the Catholic Church.    Now although I said earlier that Dan was a temperate man, he did allow himself to have a couple of pints of Guinness that very day...................

Oddly enough, and Dan took it to be an omen for good, the week preceding the Baptism, it had rained consistently with a gale blowing most of the day and night.   However, as they left the house for the church that morning, the sky miraculously cleared and the sun shone on them.    There was not even a breath of wind....

Young Daniel proved to be a healthy and very bright baby from day one.   He caused Mary not one moment’s anxiety and sure enough, or at least Dan was sure that he noticed it, was showing signs of ‘the gift’.

When he was three years old Mrs. Doyle noticed that when the child was in the back garden he could actually control the farmyard animals merely by looking at them.   He never seemed to say anything to them but they seemed to be doing his bidding without any words of command being given.    He was also able to imitate the birds and by calling them with his weak whistle they would come from the surrounding trees and hedgerows to alight on the grass close to him.

At school he showed great promise and as his teacher said, he had great potential.   He had already passed two of his older brothers in learning and the teacher reckoned that it would not be long before he overtook the others as well.

Daniel was a quiet boy and although he attended church when told to by his mother, he was not religious in a ‘religious’ sort of way.   He was more of a nature person...

It was not until his tenth birthday that it was discovered that he did indeed possess ‘the gift’.    Mrs. Doyle had laid on a small party for him and a few of his friends and during the rough and tumble among the group of boys, one cracked his head against the outside wall and badly cut the side of his head.    When Mrs. Doyle heard the scream she ran to get something to put on the wound.    She had seen the cut and the blood but when she returned with some bandages, there was no sign of either.   When she asked what had happened, one of the boys quietly said “Daniel did the magic and it all went away”.    Mrs. Doyle said nothing to Daniel  but  later  that  night she passed on what had happened to Dan.

A few weeks later, whilst cutting some hedgerows near the house, Dan caught his hand on some barbed wire and got a nasty deep cut on the palm of his hand.    He put a cloth on it and returned to the house.    When Mary saw it, she quietly said “Why not ask Daniel to help?”    

She called him down from upstairs where he was doing his homework and quietly said “Daniel, I know what you did on your birthday to your friend’s head, would you try to do it on your father’s hand?”    “Surely” he replied and went up to Dan.

“Daddy” he said “pick a cabbage leaf from the garden and bring it to me”.    Dan did not hesitate but did what he was told.    On his return, Daniel folded it in the shape of a cross and placed it over the wound.   He then replaced the bandage.   “Don’t touch it until after tea and it will be OK Dad” he said as he returned upstairs.

Sure enough and you can believe me or not, as Mary poured out the tea for Dan no more than an hour later, he removed the bandage.   The cabbage leaf was no longer there and there was not a sign of any wound – not even a scar.    Although Mary and Dan had known of ‘the gift’ for many years, it was the first time that they had ever seen it work.   Neither said anything – they just nodded to each other.................

Over the coming years, Daniel saw to most of the family’s ailments.   The word spread and close neighbours would also come to him with their problems.    Daniel never refused to see anyone.    Many were cured immediately with others requiring a second or third visit.

He never accepted money from anyone and when people began to arrive each evening from distant parts of Ireland to be cured, Dan was forced to restrict meeting them to three days each week.    After seeing more than six people Daniel was so tired that he would sleep for ten hours after a session...............

When he was eighteen, someone informed Radio Eireann (the Irish Radio Service) people up in Dublin and of course they sent down a crew to record some of the healings.    When Daniel told one of his ‘patients’ who was suffering from very bad styes in his eyes to go to the garden and pick seven gooseberry thorns, the radio interviewer began to laugh. When he saw Daniel point each one at the styes until all seven had been used and then telling the patient to bury them in the garden, the interviewer began to laugh hysterically.    It was Dan who ordered them to leave the house and never to return.

It is a pity really for next morning the man with the styes returned completely cured....

When the item was broadcast on radio, hundreds if not thousands complained to the authorities about the way they had ridiculed Daniel.    A more serious result was that now that the whole country knew of him, thousands would descend on his home from far and wide.    Many had incurable diseases including terminal cancers most of whom had been given short times to live.   All medical treatment had failed and although many were clutching at straws they saw Daniel as their final hope.

Such scenes frightened Daniel for he had not known about such sufferings throughout his young life (he had not yet reached his twenty-first birthday).    The stress was beginning to affect his health.

However, the ‘final straw that broke the camel’s back’ was when one evening as the family sat down to tea they heard a loud banging on the front door.    It was his mother who answered it to find a young woman with a baby in arms.    “Daniel must help the baby”   the woman cried.  Daniel heard her and immediately went to see what was going on.

The woman handed him the baby and as he looked at the child he could see in his mind’s eye that the child was close to death.    The woman cried “The doctors say that there is nothing they can do for him, it’s his little heart” she spoke through her tears.

Daniel took the child to the kitchen telling everyone to remain in the front room.

He prayed over the child and it was then that the decision came to him.   He would take the child’s place...........................

He placed his hand on the child’s chest and concentrated harder than he had ever done in his life.    He suddenly saw a flash of light and was forced to put the child down as he clutched his own chest.   As he cried out the others ran into the kitchen to find the child crying at the top of his lungs whilst Daniel sat on the floor clutching his chest.

A doctor was called and as he examined Daniel, his life passed away.    He had suffered a severe heart attack.......................

Oddly enough, when the doctor examined the child he could find nothing whatsoever wrong with the child’s heart and this was confirmed by the hospital specialists later.   They called it a miracle.......

The strangest fact about the whole affair was that Daniel died at seven minutes past seven, on the seventh day of July – the seventh month – nineteen hundred and seventy seven – 7.7pm, 7.7.77................................

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