Fr John Vincent Gallagher

(24 December 1923 – 18 December 2015)

Fr John Vincent Gallagher, known to his fellow Columbans as ‘John V’, died peacefully on 18 December 2015 in St Columban’s Nursing Home, Dalgan Park, Navan, Ireland.  Born on 24 December 1923, in Glasgow, Scotland, but raised in Dún Lúiche (Dunlewey), Gaoth Dobhair (Gweedore), County Donegal, Ireland.

St Andrew’s Catholic Cathedral, Glasgow [Wikipedia]

He was educated in Dunlewey National School, Meenaclady National School, and St Eunan’s College, Letterkenny. He went to St Columban’s, Dalgan Park, in 1944 and was ordained there on 21 December 1950.

Poison Glen, near Dunlewey [Wikipedia]

Assigned to the Philippines, he had a series of appointments in his first three years to Silang, Cavite, Lingayen and Olongapo, and this was followed by a four-year stint as assistant in Malate Church, Manila. In 1960 he was appointed to Student Catholic Action in the Archdiocese of Manila. His capacity for relating with young people, his sense of humour and his dedication meant that he was very successful in this ministry where he spent the next eleven years. He then spent four years as Chaplain at Makati Medical Centre where he was deeply appreciated by both patients and staff.

Nuestra Señora de Remedios, Our Lady of Remedies
Malate Church, Manila [Wikipedia]

This was followed by a period as Director of the Student Pastorate in Baguio City; at the same time he proved a generous host as he took charge of the Columban Vacation House in that city.

Baguio City [Wikipedia]

After Baguio, it was back to the lowlands again, with years spent first in Morong and later in Jalajala, Rizal, before being assigned once more to Malate, Manila.

In 1990, he was appointed to the Mission Promotion Team in Ireland. His abiding interest in people, his extraordinary memory for names and his gift for relating to young schoolchildren, made him a very valuable asset to the team. He returned once more to the Philippines in 1995 and spent his last three years there in pastoral work. When he returned to Ireland in 1998, he was available for all sorts of tasks, including radio interviews, in Irish and English, on all news events to do with the Philippines.

Father John V.  was a dedicated missionary, a fascinating companion and  a unique character. People who met him once never forgot him. He will be sadly missed by all of us. He was buried on 21 December from the chapel in St Columban’s where he had been ordained priest exactly 65 years before.

May he rest in peace. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasal – May his noble soul be on the right hand of God.

The obituary, slightly edited here, was written by Fr Cyril Lovett.

Fr Patrick Raleigh, Regional Director of the Columbans in Ireland, mentioned in an email that the lunch after the burial was followed by a sing-song mostly of songs dealing with Donegal. The song above, The Green Fields of Gweedore, is sung by Clannad, the members of which are from the place. The opening line refers to the townland where Father John V grew up: Down past Dunlewey’s bonnie lakes.

Gleanntáin Ghlas’ Ghaoth Dobhair, ‘The  Green Glens of Gweedore’, is sung by Altan, the lead singer of which, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, is also a native of this beautiful place. She sings in Irish (Gaelic), Father John V’s native tongue, the ancestral language of most Irish people. The readings at the funeral Mass and the traditional decade of the Rosary at the graveside were in Irish.

Both songs are songs of exile about the singer’s native place and both videos show scenes around Gweedore.

Fr Patrick J. Crowley 

(1926-2015)

Fr Patrick (Pat) J. Crowley died suddenly on 25 October, 2015, in St Columban’s Nursing Home, Dalgan Park, Navan, Ireland. Born inCaheragh Parish (Diocese of Cork and Ross), County Cork, on 18 March 1926, he was educated in Dromore National School,  Bantry, and St Colman’s College, Fermoy, County Cork. He joined the Columbans  in Dalgan Park in 1945, was ordained priest on 21 December 1951, and was assigned to Japan.

River Blackwater, Fermoy [Wikipedia]

He soon became Bursar for the Region of Japan and after a term of seven years, he took on the same task in Whitby, England. There followed appointments  as Bursar  in Australia (Essendon and Perth) in 1963, and later in Wellington, New Zealand, before he was reassigned to Britain where he became District Superior in 1972. As he put it himself: ‘it was a case of out of the frying pan into another frying pan’.  Finishing that term in 1979  he became Manager of the Mission Office in Ireland, where he computerised the office systems, before being appointed as Director of the Irish Region in 1983 for a term of four years.

Wellington, New Zealand [Wikipedia]

He was appointed General Secretary to the Central Administration of the Society in 1987, and continued working with the General Council for over twenty years, accepting the jobs of Society Archivist and History Coordinator as well.  It was only occasionally that his dedicated and painstaking work could be seen and admired.  In his annual publication of the Society Personnel Directory he tried to keep up with all the personnel changes  across the world.  But it was his bi-annual updating of Those who Journeyed with Us, where he managed to assemble profiles and photos of the more than seven hundred deceased Columbans, that really reflected his many years of determined effort.

St Columban’s Cemetery, Dalgan Park

This is Fr Pat Crowley’s final resting place as it is of so many others whom he lovingly honoured in Those Who Journeyed With Us, the book of obituaries of deceased Columbans, many editions of which he compiled and edited.

After the General Council left Dublin for Hong Kong in 1988, Father Pat remained on to manage the house in Donaghmede, Dublin,  until ill health obliged him to enter the Nursing Home in Dalgan in June 2012. Father Pat left us with memories of  a caring missionary, a quiet-spoken, discrete man with a deadpan sense of humour who served others without thought of reward or recognition.

May he rest in peace.

Bantry Bay sung by John McCormack

‘Some are gone upon their last logged homing,
Some are left, but they are old and gray,
And we’re waiting for the tide in the gloaming,
To sail upon the Great Highway,
To the land of rest unending,
All peacefully from Bantry Bay.’

This song about the people and the place where Father Pat grew up was written by James Molloy. The photo used in the video is by Pam Brophy and taken from Wikipedia. Thanks to Frs Noel Daly and Cyril Lovett for the text of the obituary.

Fr Oliver Canice Kennedy

(1922 – 2015)

Fr Oliver Kennedy was born in Loughrea, County Galway, Ireland, on 3 November 1922, the year the Irish Free State, now the Republic of Ireland, separated from the United Kingdom as an independent state. He was educated at St Brendans National School, Loughrea, and St Josephʼs College, Ballinasloe, County Galway. In 1941, he was a member of the first class to be admitted to the new Dalgan Park at St Columbanʼs, Navan, County Meath. He was ordained priest on 21 December 1947.

St Brendan’s Cathedral, Loughrea, Diocese of Clonfert [Wikipedia]

His first appointment, in 1948, was to Burma, but because of the difficulties in obtaining a visa he was subsequently appointed to Korea. He was to spend the next twenty years there, working in the

Kwangju area as pastor of Koksung and later of Posong, before becoming director of Catholic Relief Services in Kwangju.

Flag of South Korea [Wikipedia]

In 1989 he was appointed to the General Mission Office in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. He spent almost twenty years there in various roles. Affable and hard-working, he enjoyed good relationships with all the office staff.

Montego Bay. Jamaica [Wikipedia]

The Columbans worked for some years in the Diocese of Montego Bay.

Then, in 1986 he was appointed as a member of the pioneer Columban team to Jamaica. Jamaica was characterised by high levels of violence, and by a lack of family life values, due in large part to the suffering in slavery of so many of the early inhabitants. After seven years working there, Father Oliverʼs health demanded that he be reassigned to the USA. There he worked once again, for as long as he was able, in the Omaha Mission Office.

St Columban’s, Dalgan Park

Father Oliver was in the first group of Irish Columban seminarians to start their studies in this, the ‘New Dalgan’, when it was opened in 1941. The ‘Old Dalgan’ in Shrule ahd served as our seminary in Ireland from 1918 until 1941. He studied here for seven years and spent the last two years of his life in the nursing home here.

He was admitted to the Dalgan Nursing Home in June 2013. His last two years were difficult, but he was treated with immense kindness and patience by all the members of the Nursing Home staff. May he rest in peace.

St Columban’s Cemetery, Dalgan Park

Father Oliver’s brother Joseph, also a Columban priest, is buried here too. He was ordained in 1942 and worked on mission in China, Japan, Britain and Peru. He died on 18 February 1997. The light of heaven on both of them.

Fr Denis Bartley

18 September 1927 – 20 April 2015

Fr Denis Bartley died in Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan, on 20 April. Born at Killinure, Brittas, Pallasgreen, County Limerick on 18 September 1927.  He was educated at Eyon National School, and Mount Melleray, where he also studied two years of Philosophy. He came to St Columban’s College, Dalgan Park, Navan, in 1947 and was ordained priest on 21 December 1951.

Mambajao, viewed from Mount Hibok-Hibok [Wikipedia]

Appointed to the Philippines and the District of Mindanao, he served initially in Mambajao (Camiguin), and later in the parishes of Dumalinao, Dumingag (both in Zamboanga del Sur), Ozamis City, Malabang (Lanao del Sur) and Sapang Dalaga (Misamis Occidental). A number of these appointments were particularly difficult, and he served there in traumatic times.

Mount Hibok-Hibok [Wikipedia]

He was in Mambajao after Mount Hibok-Hibok’s volcanic eruption killed 1,000 people and destroyed the parish house on 4 December 1951. [Editor’s note: the Columbans had just taken over the four parishes in Camiguin from the Jesuits.] He was pastor of Malabang when Fr Martin Dempsey was shot dead on 19 October 1970. 

Fr Martin Dempsey

1934 – 19 October 1970

In March 1974, Fr Bartley was appointed to the USA and served as director of promotion.

Cathedral Basilica of St John the Apostle and Evangelist, Lima [Wikipedia]

In 1980, he was assigned to Peru and served in Lima during the following three years. Re-assigned to the USA in 1983, he did mission education work, and served in the Bayside and Kew Garden houses in New York City before returning as bursar to the Columban house in Omaha, Nebraska, where the American headquarters are located. He served in various other roles in Omaha until poor health forced his return to Ireland and to St Columban’s Nursing Home in January 2012.

Father Denis was a private, rather reserved person, yet he was good company and an excellent host. Totally dedicated and committed to the people, he was remembered with great affection in many parishes long after he had been transferred elsewhere.  

May he rest in peace. 

Fr Patrick Raleigh, Regional Director of the Columbans in Ireland, described Father Denis’s funeral as ‘a very joyful celebration’ – not unusual at Columban funerals – and noted that at the lunch after the burial in St Columban’s Cemetery a couple of Limerick songs were sung, led by Bob Richardson, a nephew of Father Denis, and Paddy Crowe, a brother of Columban Sister Sheila Crowe. One was There is an Isle, associated especially with rugby in Limerick.

The other song was Limerick, You’re a Lady. Your editor happened to find a recording of this sung by Milaflor Abordo from the Philippines.

Fr Daniel M. Baragry

11 May 1930 – 9 January 2015

The homily at the funeral Mass of Fr Daniel M. Baragry on Tuesday 13 January was given by his nephew Fr Daniel Baragry CSsR, the newly-elected Provincial of the Dublin Province of the Redemptorists. He spent some years in the Philippines as a seminarian and as a priest.

Fr Dan Baragry CSsR with Sr Maria  Sidorova OSsR

Today is a sad day for us as we come to bury Dan; yet it is also an opportunity for us, the two pillars of Dan’s life, family (Baragry/McDonald) and Society (Columbans) to celebrate and give thanks for his life.

Dan was born in Tipperary town on May 11th 1930 the second eldest of four brothers, one of who, Frank, was also a Columban. The Baragry boys were into boxing in their youth and would have had very happy memories of summers spent with relatives in Wicklow (Coolnarrig and Baltinglass) and I am sure Dan would have often recalled the hills of Wicklow as he trudged the hills of Mindanao in later years. He was educated by the Christian Brothers at the Abbey school in Tipperary.

At an early age Dan decided that he wanted to be a priest and surprisingly to be a Columban. I say surprisingly because for me one of the great mysteries of Dan’s life is why or how he became a Columban – after all he had an uncle and a granduncle who were Redemptorists at the time! I asked Dan once what the reaction of the family was when he told them the news and he admitted that his mother sent him into Mount St. Alphonsus in Limerick to talk to a Redemptorist about his vocation – probably hoping that they would “sort him out”. In Limerick Dan met a wise old Redemptorist who having listened to his story told him that if he really wanted to be a Missioner then he would not recommend that he join the Redemptorists because it could not be guaranteed that he would end up being sent on the foreign missions. Dan I am sure happy made his way home to Tipperary to share the “good” news.

A Missionary at heart

I mention this little incident because I believe it’s important if you are to really know and understand Dan Baragry – he was at heart a Missioner, it is what shaped his life and his values, attitudes and outlook toward life. He was a hard working, totally committed Missioner. Its what brought him to Dalgan in 1948 where he was ordained just over 60 years ago in 1954; what brought him to the Philippines and what makes sense of his 45 years of service there in Mindanao and Cebu.

Though he was out of Ireland for that long period of the life Dan never lost touch/contact with his family. Our home in Limerick became Dan and Frank’s home and they would spend all of their vacations from the Philippines with us. My mother, Kitty, didn’t know what she was getting into when she took on the Baragrys – four young children, a father-in-law and every few years these two extra “brothers” or better still perhaps “older children” turning up. There was always fun and laughter in the house when Dan and Frank were around – we children probably got away with murder while they were at home! We have very good and positive memories of our childhood with uncles Dan and Frank – they were significant figures in our young lives.

Parish Ministry – Dan never took the easy option

In the Philippines Dan spent 35 years in Parish Ministry, very much a time and mission of activity in his life. He had 11 major assignments over that period and what strikes me about this time in Dan’s life is his sense of availability – he never took the easy option, always the more demanding and gave himself fully to it. Two of those parish appointments stand out for me; Anakan was a mountain parish, with 80 communities which Dan visited regularly by motor bike and on foot; Dan spent eight years here and was extremely happy. I visited him there once and following the Sunday morning mass he discovered a Five Peso note in the collection, worth about 10 cent, such “wealth” had never before been seen in the Anakan collection plates and it took a lot to convince Dan that I had not put it in! Tandag was a new area taken on by the Columbans in the early 80s. Dan was the first to volunteer and was assigned to Marihatag where his house was built on the beach, Dan built a veranda on to the house which he claimed “saved my sanity” as he listened to the waves of the Pacific rolling in. Even the Columbans regarded Tandag as a hardship station, It was over eight hours drive for the Central House in Cagayan and as a result the lads only got up to Cagayan about every six to eight weeks rather than weekly. Once while waiting in Cagayan for Dan and the others to arrive from Tandag the superior of the house said to me “Look, they will be arriving in about 20 minutes, just take no notice of them and they will be alright in about half an hour.” Sure enough they arrived and were as “high as kites”, talking loudly, shouting, laughing, walking on tables! No one paid the slightest attention to them; just left them at it and within the half hour they had returned to normal, relaxed and you could finally engage with them.

Outreach Ministry to the sick in Cebu

When he finished with parish ministry Dan took three units of CPE in St. Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin before returning to the Philippines and moving to Cebu to began a ministry in the psychiatric unit of Southern Islands Hospital – it was very much a mission and ministry of presence – where in some sense he saw or experienced few results and yet Dan gave himself fully to the situation and patients there working to improve the quality of their lives and like any good Missioner strove to leave something behind him to continue and consolidate this ministry, which he did by inviting and facilitating a group of Sisters to continue the work.

Retirement to Dalgan

Dan returned to Ireland in 2001 but this was not the end of his missionary life.  His last and perhaps most demanding mission took place here in Dalgan where he spend over 10 years in the Nursing Home. It was very much a mission of acceptance and trust. During his final years Dan never complained, his gentleness and good humour came to the fore.  He was always thankful and grateful for all the care, help and support he received. He lived a simple, graceful life which revolved around some very simple and basic realities; daily Eucharist, during which he prayed for us all, meals, the rosary and of course the glass or two of whiskey! 

On behalf of the family I want to thank Dan’s Columban Confreres, for your friendship, care and support to and for him. Dan was a Columban at heart, he enjoyed your company, the banter and fun amongst you and was able to give as good as he got! Even in his worst days when I was not sure if he recognised me or had forgotten the family he never lost contact with the Columbans, I could always usually draw him out with questions about Columbans – Where is so and so now? Who is that over there? What’s the name of that man passing? Dan could always come up with an answer and a name – eventually!

Sincere thanks also to the nursing staff and carers in the St. Columban Nursing Home here in Dalgan. As a family we were always aware and grateful that Dan was being so well looked after and cared for. He was I know a good patient, liked and loved by you and he liked and loved you in return. Dan got on well with all his carers, male and female but it won’t come as a surprise to my family when I say that he enjoyed the company of women – you brought out the best in him and I am sure that he enjoyed being surrounded by women in his final years.

Dan, at rest and at peace

The Missioner’s journey has finally come to an end – Dan is at rest and at peace. I believe that there is always a restlessness in the heart of a Missioner – he or she can identify with and make their own the words of St. Augustine “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you O Lord.” A Missioner is always to an extent “a stranger in a strange land.” In your youth you leave your own country and your father’s house and you follow a call often to the far side of the world where you give yourself totally to a new people but where to some extent you always remain “a stranger” because of the colour of your skin, the culture or as in the case of the Philippines your big nose!! When you finally return home you find that things have changed – it’s good to be home but you continue to feel a stranger, without deep roots, and anyway your heart is miles ways with a people that you have grown to love.

Dan has finally come home – to the house of his Father – where he will find rest and will never be a stranger – where he meets the God whom he has served and searched for all of his life. May he rest in peace and keep us all in his prayers.

Fr Daniel M. Baragry

11 May 1930 – 9 January 2015

Fr Daniel (‘Dan’) Baragry was born on 11 May 1930 in Tipperary Town, County Tipperary, Ireland. Educated at Christian Brothers School, Tipperary, and The Abbey School, Tipperary, he came to St Columban’s, Dalgan Park, Navan, in September 1948 and was ordained priest on 21 December 1954.

Main Street, Tipperary Town [Wikipedia]

Father Dan was assigned to the Philippines and spent the next 45 years happily working in that country. The first 35 years were all spent in parishes in the southern island of Mindanao. He served in Pagadian City (Zamboanga del Sur), Mahinog (Camiguin Island), Malabang (Lanao del Sur), Tangub City (Misamis Occidental), Bacolod (Lanao del Norte), Anakan (Gingoog City, Misamis Oriental), Alubijid (Misamis Oriental), Marihatag (Surigao del Sur) and Linamon  (Lanao del Norte).

Pagadian City, on Illana Bay [Wikipedia]

A man of prodigious energy, he served for example in Anakan, a very rough, rugged, mountainous parish, which had a logging camp and a total of eighty-three small scattered communities. Dan was out almost every day on his motor-bike, visiting one or other community. On his return to the parish house, after a short rest, he had the energy to play tennis, and after a shower and supper, there was always the designated prayer time. A former superior said of him ‘Dan always wanted the hard assignments;  he worked hard, played hard and prayed hard’. When the new area of Tandag was taken on, Dan was one of the first to volunteer, even though his assignment was an eight-hour drive from the Columban Central House in Cagayan de Oro.

San Agustin Cathedral, Cagayan de Oro City [Wikipedia, Shubert Ciencia]

In the early 1990s, Father Dan took some units of Clinical Pastoral Education. Later, residing in the formation house in Cebu City,  he undertook a new apostolate with patients, and their families of the psychiatric wing of Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, a government hospital.  In this apostolate he served those most neglected by society. By the year 2000 his own health required care and he spent a year in Manila before returning home to Ireland in April 2001. As long as he was active he did some book-keeping work in the farm office before being confined to the Dalgan Nursing Home where he died on 9 January after participating in the morning Eucharist. Father Dan was a quiet, dedicated, loyal Columban with a gentle sense of humour.

May he rest in peace.

Slievenamon is the unofficial anthem of people from Tipperary and is sung here by the late Frank Patterson, from Clonmel, County Tipperary.

Slievenamon, County Tipperary [Photo:Wikimedia Commons user Trounce]

Bishop Nereo P. Odchimar of Tandag, which covers the province of Surigao del Sur, wrote in an email to Fr Pat Raleigh, Columban Regional Director in Ireland: Kindly convey to the Columban Fathers and to Fr Dan’s family condolence and prayers from the Diocese of Tandag. Thanks for giving us a great missionary who was an inspiration for our younger priests.

Fr Raleigh noted that on the night that Dan died the nurse on duty, Ruby, and one of the carers, Susanne, were from the Philippines. How appropriate. 

Elma Guia O’Connell, a Filipina who served as a Columban lay missionary in Taiwan and is now married in Ireland, wrote your editor, We are on the way back to Dungarvan from Navan where we attended the funeral of Fr Dan Baragry yesterday in Dalgan. I don’t know much about Fr Dan but once you know one Columban who dedicated his life to the Filipino people, it feels like you know them all.

Your editor and Father Dan spent some years together on the formation team in Cebu City. Father Dan experienced real joy in spending every morning from Monday to Friday with the patients in the psychiatric wing of the hospital where he worked. He had great patience and remarkable kindness, a kindness that his late brother, Fr Frank Baragry who died in 1997, also had. Father Frank spent 40 years in Mindanao as a Columban missionary. Their nephew, Fr Dan Baragray CSsR, the newly-elected Provincial of the Dublin Province of the Redemptorists, also worked in the Philippines, first as a student and later as a priest. Long-distance phone-calls between the two Dan Baragrys used to cause some confusion when they had to be done through an operator!

Something your editor will always remember about Father Dan is his very firm and warm handshake.

Basílica Minore del Santo Niño de Cebú [Wikipedia]

Fr Mark Kavanagh (1926 – 2014)

This photo was taken at a meeting of Columbans in 1988 in Scala Retreat House, Bacolod City.

St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Dublin [Wikipedia]

Father Mark was born in the St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral Parish in Dublin on 27 January 1926 and lived on the North Circular Road. He grew up in a family of five sisters and three brothers. He received his primary and secondary education in O’Connell Schools.

Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice and Daniel O’Connell

He entered the Columbans in 1944 and spent the next seven years in St Columban’s, Dalgan Park, Navan. Ordained on 21 December 1950 he was appointed to the Philippines.

Mount Kanlaon, Negros [Wikipedia]

The island of Negros, specifically the southern part of Negros Occidental, then part of the Diocese of Bacolod and now the Diocese of Kabankalan, became Father Mark’s home for most of the next fifty years. The place sugar workers were to play in his life and ministry began with an early assignment as chaplain at Binalbagan-Isabela Sugar Company, known as ‘Biscom’. 

Cut sugarcane [Wikipedia]

Along with pastoral roles Father Mark soon found himself as part of the Columban leadership team in the area, a position he held for the rest of his time there. This was surely a testament to the kind of man Mark was and in the turbulent times of the 1970s his wisdom, humor and human kindness helped maintain the bonds among the Columbans in Negros. This was particularly true during the saga of the Negros Nine when Fr Niall O’Brien, Fr Brian Gore and others, were jailed on trumped-up charges of murder. The violence and intimidation of those times was linked to the struggle of the sugar workers for a life beyond a feudal serf.

Kabankalan City [Wikipedia]

Father Mark was a friend and mentor of all young  Columbans arriving in Negros at that time. Most of these served with him in either Kabankalan or Binalbagan. He was very supportive of new initiatives like Fr Niall O’Brien’s Retreat Movement for men and the decision of Fr Brian Gore and Fr John Brazil to move out from the parish of Kabankalan to live in the Barrio of Oringao in the mid 1970s to set up Basic Christian Communities in neighbring villages. These were later developed into 16 parishes in Southern Negros.

The visit to Negros of his brother Bishop James Kavanagh, then an auxiliary bishop of Dublin, his sister Breda and her husband Michael Mangan in the early 1980s was deeply appreciated by Father Mark. He constantly kept in touch with his family and when he retired to Ireland he chose to live with Breda and Michael until illness necessitated a move to the Columban Nursing Home in Dalgan Park. He will long be remembered for his humor and his supportive and caring role for all that continued until he died in Blanchardstown Hospital on 23 December 2014.

May he rest in peace.

Clerys, O’Connell Street, Dublin [Wikipedia]

Many Columbans bought their suits and other clothing here.

Homily for Funeral Mass of Mark Kavanagh

Fr Donal Hogan, 26 December 2014

My abiding memory of Mark is when as Superior in Negros he lived in Batang, HImamaylan City, our HQ, welcoming us from the parishes and having the interest and the time and the concern to listen to each of us with all our concerns.  He was a man of presence – being there for us. He didn’t feel he always had to be doing things.  He was more for Being. Being present to – like Mary in the story of Martha and Mary.  Martha was anxiously doing things for the Lord and complained that Mary was just sitting there doing nothing. Jesus said Mary has chosen the better part. For she was not distracted with many things but sat at the Lord’s feet listening to him and being with him. Mark was like that for us. 

Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, Vermeer c.1654-55 

National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh [Web Gallery of Art]

What a gift he was to the Columbans in Negros and to the and to the people of the parishes in which he served especially Kabankalan, Binalbagan and Cauayan.  There will be much weeping in Negros for their beloved parish priest. The Filipino priests too will mourn him for he was always supportive of them and of the Sisters in all their initiatives.

Young Columbans always found him open and supportive of  of new apostolic initiatives.  Those in difficulties found him a rock of support.  I think especially of Niall O’Brien, Brian Gore and all the Negros Nine when in jail on false charges. He constantly visited them and attended the court case – being present in the front row.  Again his presence was a source  of comfort and strength for them.

His sense of humour so often helped us to see things in their proper perspective and not take ourselves too seriously.At that time there was talk of the possibility of all of us being deported if we continued with our actions on behalf of justice.  At that time Mark’s close friend Eugene McGeough had not come down from his mountain parish for a few months.  Mark quipped, ‘If we are all going to be kicked out I hope someone remembers to go up and tell McGeough.’ Jerry O’Connor’s comment was, ‘If you see a blur at Manila Airport, that’ll be me.’

Malahide, County Dublin [Wikipedia]

The visit of his brother James, the Bishop, and his sister Breda and brother-in-law Michael meant so much to Mark.  It gave him a great boost.  For like St Paul he also had a thorn in the flesh – for Mark this was recurring depression.  And the words of the Lord to Mark were the same as to Paul, ‘My grace is sufficient for you’.  And I think this cross helped Mark to better understand the human frailty of others and to be compassionate to all.  In 1997 when this illness became acute I accompanied Mark home to Ireland. When we arrived at Dublin Airport I knew everything was going to be alright.  For there to meet him with a warm embrace were his brother Jim, sister Breda and Michael his brother-in-law. No wonder he chose to spend his retirement with them in Malahide, until eventually illness necessitated transfer to our Nursing Home here in Dalgan.  The staff here loved his wit and banter and cared for him as if he was one of their own family.

As Redemptorist  Pat Horgan said of Mark, ‘He was a great character, a great priest, a great Columban and a great leader.’

Jimmy Martin too described him as ‘a really great man whom we were blessed to have as Superior during the difficult times of Martial Law.’  He added ‘I am sure Brendan O’Connell, Ned Gill, Niall O’Brien, and Eugene McGeough are all jostling to greet him in the house of the Lord.’

Mark, thank you on behalf of all whose lives you have touched.

May you now rest in Peace.

Finally, as we used to pray in Ilongo, the language of Negros Occidental, HATAGI SIA, GINOO, SANG PAHUWAY MO NGA DAYON, Grant him eternal rest, O Lord.

O’Connell Monument, O’Connell Street, Dublin [Wikipedia]

A number of people described Father Mark to your editor as ‘a real Dub’. ‘Dub’ is the nickname for Dubliners. Like Father Mark, your editor is also a ‘Dub’ and went to the same school as he did, though some years after him. The school, and Dublin’s main street, are named after Daniel O’Connell, ‘The Liberator’. 

The unofficial anthem of Dubliners is the song ‘Molly Malone’, also known as ‘Cockles and Mussels’. Here is a version in Dutch by Ancora, which your editor came across only the other day. I’m sure that Father Mark would have enjoyed it. I know that he wasn’t averse to a party!

Fr Brian Gallagher
8 December 1926 – 5 November 2014

Fr Brian A. Gallagher died on November 5 in Crestwood Nursing Home, Bristol, Rhode Island, USA, having suffered declining health for several months.

Downings [Wikipedia]

Father Brian was born 8 December 1926, at Derryhassen,
Downings, County Donegal, Ireland, in the Diocese of Raphoe, to Patrick and Fanny Gallagher. Educated at St Enda’s College, Galway, 1941-43, and St. Eunan’s College, Letterkenny, 1943-46, he then entered St Columban’s College, Dalgan Park, Navan, the Colubman seminary in Ireland, in 1946.  He was ordained on December 21, 1952.

St Eunan’s College [Wikipedia]

He arrived in Japan, December 25, 1953 and attended the Franciscan Language School. He served in Ryujin, in the Osaka Diocese; St Columban’s, Chiba City, in the Tokyo Archdiocese; in four parishes of Kumamoto. He and Fr James Norris started youth clubs with great success.  In Shimasaki, in the Fukuoka Diocese, he was responsible for the building of a unique church shaped like a chalice and dedicated to St Thérèse.

 St Thérèse Church, Shimasaki [Daughters of St Paul]

In March 1973 he was assigned to the US Region for promotion work in Milton, MA. Soon after he was appointed superior of the Milton house. He continued with promotion/mission education work in Chicago in 1978 and also in Los Angeles in 1983.

Starting 1 September 1989 he served as Superior at the Edgemont House, near Philadelphia. There he also became chaplain of the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association (emblem above) in Philadelphia. In 1993, when the Edgemont House was closed, Father Brian moved to St Philomena’s parish where he helped out and continued with his Columban commitments to mission education and promotion.

He retired in July 1994 and initially went back to Ireland, but in March of 1995 he moved to the Bristol Retirement Home in RI. A priest of dedicated commitment to Columban Mission, he was also known and appreciated for his cooking of sukiyaki and loved to entertain people by playing the accordion.

Not Father Brian, but another Donegal man, John McArrigle

Father Brian’s funeral will take place at the Columban retirement home in Bristol on Monday, 10 November 10. Burial will take place immediately afterwards in the cemetery attached to St Mary’s Church, Bristol. May he rest in peace.

. St Columban’s, Bristol, RI, USA