COPE: the visionary behind it all

READERS will have been pleased to have your record of the magnificent work of the COPE Foundation (May 21).

But how can one write the history of this magnificent organisation without recording a tribute to the man whose vision, initiative and drive was the single reason for its existence and success?

The man in question is Canon James Bastible. He is referred to casually (once) as “Rev. Bastible.” He appears in a tiny photograph with President Childers, but remains unidentified.

I feel it is my duty to record briefly some of his heroic work since I was personally involved in the events I relate:

1. In the early years, the Cork Poliomyelitis Aftercare Association dealt exclusively with the after-effects of the 1956 polio outbreak in Cork.

2. Some years later, a crisis arose in relation to the care of mentally handicapped children in the Cork area. I was present at that critical meeting in which Canon Bastible, in a brilliant stroke of leadership, announced that he would change the name of the organisation to Cork Polio and General Aftercare Association, and that henceforth the organisation would extend its activities to cover the whole area of mental handicap.

This was the turning point which led to the COPE Foundation of today.

3. Canon Bastible then got a Ford Foundation scholarship to America. He returned to Cork armed with all the latest advances in the care of the handicapped. His drive and dedication was phenomenal and the work prospered as a result.

4. For many years Cork Polio depended on a weekly lotto for its income. Bishop Lucey issued a statement that Catholic organisations should not be dependent on gambling. Canon Bastible called a public meeting in UCC and declared that the bishop’s ban did not apply to the Cork Polio as it was a special organisation. He got away with it. The lotto continued.

I hope that the COPE foundation will make amends and pay just tribute to its founding father, Canon (later Dean) James Bastible. To write the history of the COPE Foundation without paying due tribute to him is like writing the history of hurling in Cork without mentioning Christy Ring.

Fr James Good

Parkview

Church Street

Douglas

Cork