He was born in 1849 in Westburn, a tough seaport on the River Clyde on the West Coast of Scotland. Jock MacNeil"s family were Highlanders, Catholics from the island of Barra. When he was thirteen, his mother died, and a few weeks later, in despair, his father, a blacksmith by trade, killed himself.
With both parents dead, Jock MacNeil worried that he"d fall into the care of Irish priests and nuns who ran the local Catholic orphanage. His dislike of God"s Messengers started in primary school when, one Friday afternoon during a period of religious instruction, he"d bungled the answer to the question, “Who made you?” from Sister Mary Ann, a bruiser Irish nun in charge of the class.
Gripped by funk, he lowered his head and said nothing, though the answer rang inside his head: “God made me to
