Société des Missions Africaines – Province d’Irlande
Le Père Thomas V BLEE

Father Thomas Vincent BLEE (1939 2003)

Thomas Blee was born at Altishane, Donemana, Co Tyrone, in the diocese of Derry, on 8th July 1929.
He died in Daisy Hill Hospital, Newry, Co Down, on 22nd November 2003.

Thomas (known as ‘Tommy’ in the Society) Blee was one of a large family born to Catherine (nee Devine) and Bernard Blee who farmed near Donemana. Tommy received his secondary education at St. Columba’s College, Derry and C.B.S. Omagh (1944-1949). He entered the Society’s novitiate and house of philosophy at Kilcolgan, Co Galway, in the autumn of 1949. Two years later he was promoted to the Society’s major seminary, at Dromantine, Newry, Co Down. Tommy was received as a member of the Society on 29th June 1951. He was ordained a priest (with two others, Dan Looney and Bernard Cotter) in Dromantine College Chapel, by Bishop Eugene O’Doherty of Dromore, on 8th December 1954. In the normal course he would have been ordained in the following June, but the ordination took place earlier, to mark the Marian Year which commemorated the centenary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

After ordination Tommy was appointed to the diocese of Ondo in south-western Nigeria. He was to serve in this jurisdiction until 1972. Ondo diocese had been erected in 1950 under the leadership of Thomas P. Hughes. It had an area of 6,000 square miles and a population of over 1.5 million, of which 6% were Catholic. Arriving by boat from Liverpool in October 1955, Tommy commenced his missionary career in St. Francis Xavier’s mission, Owo, then under the superiorship of James McAfee. Here he was inducted into the missionary life and studied local languages. In February of 1956, having received faculties to hear confessions in Yoruba, he was assigned to St. Joseph’s mission, Usi, where Dan McAuley was superior. From March 1957 he was assistant to Michael McCoy in St. James’ mission, Ilorin. In October 1958 he returned to Owo serving under Dave Mulcahy.

When Tommy returned to Nigeria after his first home leave he fell ill and it was suggested by his doctor that he might recuperate best in the bishop’s house. Shortly after his arrival there, in January 1961, William Field (who had succeeded Bishop Hughes in April 1959) made Tommy his secretary. Tommy made an excellent secretary, with his orderly mind and his attention to detail. It was not surprising that in June 1962, when Pat O’Neill, editor of the Nigerian Independent, a Catholic newspaper founded at Ibadan in 1960, went home on leave, Bishop Field released Tommy to take his place.

Throughout his life Tommy was to suffer much ill-health. In his early years in Nigeria he endured severe gastric troubles which eventually necessitated partial removal of the stomach. He enjoyed better general health for a period after this operation. However in February 1963 he began to suffer from headaches and nervous tension. After rest in Ireland he was able to return to Nigeria taking up an appointment at Catholic Mission, Oye-Ekiti. During later tours of duty he served in Ado-Ekiit and in Ikole-Ekiti.

In 1967, during home leave, Tommy contracted an influenza which he found difficult to shake off. Eventually he was hospitalised and required a long period of rest before being ready to return to Nigeria. On his return, in April 1968, he was posted to the Technical College, in Owo. In 1970, following differences with his bishop – personal strain and exhaustion doubtless played a part - Tommy decided to withdraw from Ondo diocese. During his home leave in 1970 the Provincial suggested he might take on the editorship of the African Missionary. In the event the period of rest in Ireland recharged Tommy’s batteries and he returned to Nigeria.

During his next home leave, in November 1972, Tommy was appointed Secretary responsible for the Preparatory Work for the Provincial Assembly, 1973. This arduous task required him to familiarise himself with the 1968 Pre-Assembly Documentary preparation, to draw up Documents for the forthcoming Assembly and participate in the various groups set up to study and report on matters deemed necessary by way of preparation for the Assembly. Tommy acquitted himself well and shortly after the Assembly, in August 1973, the incoming Provincial Administration appointed him to take charge of the main Promotion Office at Blackrock Road. Tommy discharged his duties in this capacity until February 1975 when a recurrence of illness compelled him to retire. He spent most of the next three years with his family in Tyrone, returning to active work in December 1978. After a temporary appointment in promotion (collecting mite boxes while based in Blackrock Road), he was formally assigned to this work a year later. In April 1984 he went to Dromantine from where he continued to promote and collect mite boxes and distribute Mass Remembrance cards. Tommy retired from the active ministry in May 1999, remaining on in Dromantine for his final years.

Tommy was an excellent administrator, conscientious to a fault. His promotional work was also extremely successful, and this was not only reflected in the annual returns but in the attachment to the Society and its works which he generated throughout Northern Ireland. On his daily rounds, in rain and sunshine, he exercised a pastoral ministry which was greatly appreciated. This was the key to his success. He impressed people as a holy man and his empathy with the sick and suffering – flowing from his own deep experience of suffering – was obvious to all.

In the early hours of Friday morning, November 21st, 2003, Tommy fell in his room in Dromantine. When he got into bed again his ribs were very painful so he sat in a chair. When the Doctor checked his condition in the morning he sent him to Daisy Hill hospital. A touch of pneumonia set in and his condition began to deteriorate. He died peacefully the following evening at 6.30 p.m. in the presence of members of his family. At his own request his remains were brought to the house of his nephew, Brian Devine, Green Road, Meendamph, Donemana, Strabane, after 11 a.m. Mass in Dromantine, on Monday, November 24th. His funeral Mass was celebrated in St. Mary’s Church, Aughabrack.

Tommy possessed a certain brusqueness of manner and forthrightness in opinion which sometimes caused difficulties in relationships with confreres and superiors. However at heart he was a deeply serious man devoted to the service of people both in Africa and Ireland. During his years in promotion, especially in Northern Ireland, he earned a reputation as a healer – a holy priest who would pray over the sick and whose prayers would be answered. Each evening, on returning from his work, he would spend an hour praying for the people he had met during the day. He became one of the best-known and best-loved SMA’s through this ministry.

He is buried in the cemetery adjoining St. Mary’s Church, Aughabrack, Co Tyrone.