Fr Barrymore Hynes

Early life

Barrymore John Hynes was born in Snowtown in the mid-north of South Australia on September 3, 1931. His early education was received at the Snowtown Primary School and he completed his secondary education at Rostrevor College where he excelled not only academically but also in the sporting field, especially in tennis.

From Rostrevor he went to St Francis Xavier’s Seminary where he began his study for the priesthood. His final years of theology were undertaken at St Patrick’s College Manly, NSW.

He was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Beovich in St Canice’s Church, Snowtown on July 27, 1954. He returned to Manly to complete his studies and at the end of the year he was appointed assistant priest at Woodville. After two years he was appointed chaplain to the Young Christian Students Movement (YCS) and also secretary to the Catholic Hour Committee. With the advent of television this became the Catholic Radio & TV Committee. The Catholic Hour was a weekly program on radio station 5KA (owned by the Uniting Church) and hosted for many years by Michael Kelly.

Catholic Education

The following year Fr Barrymore was appointed Inspector of Catholic Schools to work with Fr Ted Mulvihill. He was sent to Melbourne to undertake a one year teacher training course. On his return he was appointed assistant priest at Hectorville while continuing his duties as part-time inspector of Catholic schools. At the same time he continued his work with Catholic Radio & TV. This entailed organising speakers for the Catholic Hour and for Sunday slots on TV which the channels were obliged to provide free time, and also for speakers for the ‘epilogues’ which were short five minutes slots before the stations closed down for the night. In this work he was assisted by Frs Michael Rodger and John Swann.

While continuing his work with Catholic Education he moved to Goodwood as Assistant priest during 1961-2, and then to Dulwich at the end of 1962. He was also appointed chaplain to the Newman Institute, as well as the Young Christian Students Movement and the Wattle Park Teachers College Don Bosco Society. At the end of 1965 he spent four months as supply priest at Strathalbyn during the illness of the parish priest.

At the end of September 1967 he was appointed Director of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) which was responsible for the provision of Religious Instruction in State Schools. Courses for the training of Religious Teachers in State schools in all Adelaide areas, including Elizabeth and Salisbury began in 1968. They were 10-week courses for voluntary lay teachers. As Fr Hynes said at the time: “We must face facts. Taking into consideration present day conditions and the inability of Catholic schools to expand sufficiently, either in staff or buildings, something must be done for the Christian Education of the 54 per cent of Catholic children in State schools – they must not be treated as second class Catholics”.

Soon after accepting this appointment he resigned as Secretary of the Catholic Radio & TV Committee. And just before the end of that year he was appointed chaplain of Cabra College and Convent to reside in the Chaplain’s Lodge at Cabra.

Throughout this time Fr Barrymore had retained his great interest in tennis and established a great reputation as a skilled player. He was heavily involved with the SA Catholic Lawn Tennis Association and also the National Association and represented SALTA in many of their carnivals. In January 1972 he resigned from these associations.

Around this time Fr Hynes had to negotiate the traumatic move of withdrawing the provision of Religious Instruction in State schools, which of course had an impact on the work of CCD. During 1972 he was granted five months long service leave and travelled overseas.

Back to parish life

On May 1, 1974 he was appointed parish priest of Hectorville, but he remained the Supervisor of the CCD until Fr Denis Edwards returned from study overseas in January 1975. Fr Denis acknowledges that in earlier life Fr Hynes had a great influence on him while he was a student at Our Lady Queen of Peace School at Albert Park where Fr Barrymore was curate and visited the school and taught the students how to play tennis and football. Fr Denis was also influence by him in his decision to go to the Seminary. Fr Denis also took over the Chaplaincy of the YCS.

In February 1975 Fr Hynes was elected a member of the Bishop’s Senate of Priests for a two-year term. He was also elected as the Senate’s representative on the SA Commission for Catholic Schools.

During 1978 his health declined seriously with the advance of cancer and he died in Calvary Hospital after long illness on March 16, 1979. His funeral Mass was held in Church of the Annunciation at Hectorville and was attended by about 2,000 people including Archbishops Gleeson and Beovich, Bishops Kennedy and Gallagher, an interstate bishop and 156 priests. Many people were obliged to stand outside the church and listen to the Mass on a public address system.

The burial was conducted at the Centennial Park Cemetery.

May he rest in peace.