Fr Mark Kavanagh (1926 – 2014)
From Fr Patrick Raleigh, Regional Director, Ireland, 23 December 2014
This morning, 23 December at around 10.00 am, Fr Mark Kavanagh died. He was a member of the very large class of 1950. He was brother of the late Bishop James Kavanagh, Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin. Father Mark had been in ill health for some time and a little over a week ago he fell in his room here in the Nursing Home inSt Columban’s, Dalgan Park [the former seminary of the Columbans in Ireland] and fractured his hip. His condition took a turn for the worse and the doctor told me that he was a seriously ill person. He rallied a little and depending on his condition the hope was that he would have been operated on this morning. Early morning his condition got worse. He died at James Connolly Memorial Hospital in Blanchardstown, County Dublin.
Father Mark was a very colourful person. He was a true ‘Dub’ [nickname for people from Dublin] and the family lived in North Circular Road, Dublin. He spent most of his missionary life in Negros Occidental [In the southern part of the Diocese of Bacolod, the area that became the Diocese of Kabankalan in 1987] and was a very supportive person of the underdog. We thank Father Mark for his huge contribution to Columban Mission in the Philippines and elsewhere. He will be missed here in Dalgan. He had a great sense of humour. When I visited him in Blanchardstown Hospital on Sunday night he had two questions for me: Did you bring me a drop of whiskey and when are you going to get me out of here? The Presentation Sisters were very loyal friends to Father Mark and he to them.
It has now been confirmed that his funeral arrangements are as follows: Removal, Friday evening, 26 December, in Dalgan at 7.30pm, the Feast of St Stephen. Father Mark’s Funeral Mass will be on Saturday morning at 11.0 followed by burial in the Community Cemetery here in Dalgan. He is survived by one sister, Brid Mangan, who is in a nursing home, and also by nieces.
[The Removal is the traditional service of the word held in the church the evening before the burial. The only Mass celebrated on the occasion of a death in Ireland is the funeral Mass.]
An obituary will follow.