Father Daniel Mahoney remembered as ‘firefighter’s firefighter.’ Published July 2, 2024 Locally.

CHARLESTOWN — Everyone knew him as Danny. Or Danno. Or Father Dan. Or just Dan.

Father Dan Mahoney, a longtime Boston Fire Department chaplain who died June 19 at age 94, received a hero’s farewell during a funeral Mass celebrated by Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley at St. Francis de Sales Parish in Charlestown on June 27. Father Mahoney served as pastor of St. Francis de Sales Parish from 1978 until his retirement in 2022. That same year, he also retired from his position as chief chaplain of the Boston Fire Department, a position he had held since 1991. He had been a chaplain with the department since 1964.

“If you can be 200 percent anything, Father Dan was 100 percent a priest, and make no mistake, he was 100 percent a firefighter,” Dan Kelly, president of the International Association of Firefighters, said in his remarks at the memorial service. “He was Jake.”

On June 27, a large American flag hung from the ladder of a fire truck above Bunker Hill Street. Speakers played bagpipe music next to a statue of St. Florian, the patron saint of firefighters. The statue was donated to the parish in 2016 by Boston Fire Fighters Local 718 as a tribute to Father Mahoney.

As mourners slowly filed into the church, a Boston Fire Department honor guard stood outside, and the altar was decorated with ceremonial marble statues. Beneath the statues was Father Mahoney’s coffin. On it lay his helmet, battered by age and slightly blackened by soot. The church was soon filled to capacity with mourners, including Father Mahoney’s family and dozens of firefighters from Boston and the surrounding area.

Father Mahoney was born and raised in Haverhill and was ordained a priest in 1956.

“What a man,” Father John Unni, current Boston Fire Department chaplain-in-chief, said in his homily. “What a pastor. . . . I mean, you leave a mark on people’s lives by being here this long. Seventy years as a priest is longer than I’ve been on this earth.”

Father Unni quoted Father Mahoney as saying, “I always wanted to be a priest, and I always wanted to be a fireman.”

“He was a lifelong firefighter,” said Kelly, who knew Mahoney’s father his entire life. “Whether it was good days or christenings and weddings, he did it all with a smile and that one-of-a-kind voice that could cut through anything.”

He was also present in moments of what Kelly called “pain, suffering, sadness and mourning.”

One such moment was the night of Oct. 1, 1964, when a fire at an abandoned toy factory on Trumbull Street in the South End killed five Boston firefighters. Hours later, Cardinal Richard Cushing appointed him assistant fire chaplain. Over the decades of his ministry, Father Mahoney had to tell 68 families of firefighters that their loved ones had died in the line of duty.

“We’ve heard these stories,” Father Unni said, “but when you really think about it, what does it take to be present with people in that way?”

Father Unni said that being a priest is not about “saying magic words” but about being present in people’s lives.

“Father Mahoney brought that presence to all of his interactions,” he said.

Father Mahoney has been present at every major fire in Boston since 1964. He witnessed the Vendome Hotel fire on June 17, 1972, which killed nine firefighters. It remains the deadliest day for firefighters in Boston history. Twenty-three children lost their fathers that day, and Father Mahoney had to tell them what had happened.

“That’s when Father Dan arose,” Kelly said, “and I testified of the power of Father Dan and how he really brought Christ with him to different places and to the souls of people.”

During his speech, Kelly told a story that Father Mahoney told him about a helicopter crash over the Charles River in 1995 that killed four people. When Father Mahoney got the news, he ran to the scene. The helicopter was loaded with fuel and could explode at any moment. When the snake engine arrived, it was a godsend — especially when Father Mahoney saw his goddaughter inside.

“Her dad was one of those 68 firefighters whose family Danno had to call, ring their doorbell and tell them terrible, terrible news,” Kelly said.

In 2014, Kelly’s 4-year-old son learned he had stage four cancer. Father Mahoney sent the boy card after card, telling him to “keep your head up.” A parishioner later told Kelly that Father Mahoney “never prayed harder for anyone” than he did for his son.

“My son is now a healthy 14-year-old,” Kelly said.

Father Unni remembered Father Mahoney as a “steady presence” in the lives of firefighters and their families, a “passionate man who played his part” and an “old school prince” who was tough but gentle.

“That genuine love that he had for you, for God, for the church, for Charlestown, for so many … is tried and true in a very authentic way,” Father Unni said. “He was so committed to bringing us Jesus, and it came out in a beautiful, smooth, easy way, and at other times a little more unvarnished and a little rough.”

Unni’s father had known Father Mahoney since he was a boy. During the Great Chelsea Fire of 1973, when Unni’s father was in high school, Father Mahoney was on the road, but not before he drove past Father Unni and shouted, “Get in, boys! We’re going to the fire!”

When young father Unni returned home, he smelt smoke, which enraged the father.

During Father Mahoney’s Christmas Eve service on June 26, Father Unni heard a story from the filming of “The Town.” The film crew was in Charlestown and making a lot more noise than Father Mahoney wanted. He went outside and complained—only to be confronted by the film’s star, Ben Affleck. Affleck later came to apologize to Father Mahoney and asked what he could do to make up for the disruption.

“Twenty thousand should be enough,” Father Mahoney replied.

Affleck later joked that his next film would be titled “Father Shakedown.”

Father Unni described Father Mahoney as a man with a great zest for life. In his final days, he “didn’t want to abandon ship.”

The Jewish chaplain of the Boston Fire Department, Rabbi Ira A. Korff, and the Protestant chaplain, Rev. Carl B. Thompson of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Abington, were also there to pay their respects. Father Mahoney was known for his efforts to reach out to other faiths. In 1982, when Temple Tifereth Israel in Everett burned, Father Mahoney and several others famously ran into the burning building to rescue the holy Torah scrolls.

“Father was not only a great leader for St. Francis de Sales,” said parishioner Pauline O’Brien, “but also for Charlestown. He was someone the town leaned on and looked to for guidance.”

She cited his leadership during the school transport crisis, as well as in the fight against drug addiction and finding housing.

Kathleen Mahoney, whose father was Mahoney’s father’s cousin, remembered him sitting at the family dinner table in North Hampton, New Hampshire, every holiday. But he rarely stayed long because he always wanted to return to Boston to be with the firefighters, she said.

He would arrive at family gatherings in a red SUV with its lights blaring and sirens blaring, accompanied by his dog, Breslin.

“Danny was a larger-than-life figure to us,” Kathleen said, “a colorful and dramatic storyteller who knew when the show was on… He held court with his booming voice and chuckle, and he shocked and delighted us with tales of Boston’s Irish underworld and the horrific fire scenes he bravely entered.”

He told stories about “dangerous characters with strange names like Whitey Bulger” without fear.

“We kids would study at the table with our mouths open,” Kathleen recalled, “imagining scenes of bank robberies in Charlestown and the drivers who would sit in his pews the morning after Danny had visited them in jail the night before. Whether they were sinners or saints, they were all children of God to Danny.”

In addition to comforting the firefighters, he also comforted his family through any personal tragedy they faced. She heard one firefighter say, “When everyone else’s hands were shaking, Father Dan was steady and supportive.”

“His faith was so clear and present,” she said. “He was a true soldier of Jesus. He made you feel the love and confidence of God and Jesus in moments of joy and tragedy.”

Kelly said Father Mahoney taught him the difference between heroic conduct and heroic living.

“To live heroically is a much greater challenge,” she said, “and Father Dan acted heroically. He literally saved lives by his actions. But by living heroically, he saved souls, which is much more important than life.”

To the strains of “How Great Thou Art” and “Danny Boy,” eight firefighters pushed Father Mahoney’s casket out of the church, followed by his family. Outside, all the firefighters stood in a straight line along Bunker Hill Street next to the hearse. A bagpiper played as the casket was loaded into the back. The doors of the hearse slowly closed. All the firefighters saluted as the hearse slowly drove past in a procession led by a black-clad fire truck. Those attending Father Mahoney’s burial at Holy Cross Cemetery in Malden got into their cars and followed. The rest of the congregation slowly drove away.