Société des Missions Africaines –Province d'Irlande

Daniel Looney was born in Blackpool, Cork (the family lived at 7 Slattery's Avenue), in the diocese of Cork, on 30 March 193l. He died in the Holy Name hospital, Teaneck, New Jersey, U.S.A., on 6 April 1989.

Dan was educated by the Christian Brothers in the North Monastery school, Cork and, from 1944, at St. Joseph's college, Wilton, Cork. In 1949 he entered the Society's novitiate and house of philosophy at Kilcolgan, Co Galway and two years later, on 29 June 195l, he was admitted to membership of the Society. Dan received his theological formation in the major seminary, at Dromantine, Co Down. He was ordained a priest (with two others, Thomas Blee and Bernard Cotter) in Dromantine college chapel, by Bishop Eugene O'Doherty of Dromore diocese, on 8 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 Dan was sent for further studies to Rome. Residing in the Society's motherhouse, at Via de Gracchi, he attended the Urbani university and in 1957 was awarded a licentiate in theology (S.T.L.). Later that year, in October, he set sail for the diocese of Benin City in mid-western Nigeria. After a three-months tyrocinium in the regional superior's residence at Uromi, where he learned the local language, studied customs and missionary method, Dan was appointed to Warri mission in the Niger delta where travel was often by means of rivers and creeks. There, under the supervision of Michael Foley, the superior, and with Simon Styles as the third member of the team, Dan was introduced to the pastoral ministry. In April 1959 Dan was seconded to Ibadan diocese to teach in Saints Peter and Paul inter-diocesan major seminary. This institution catered for seminarians from jurisdictions in the south west, mid-west and even from northern Nigeria.

Dan's first love was always the pastoral ministry, and at the end of his second academic year, in September 1960, he received permission to return to Benin City diocese, where he resumed his duties in Warri parish. Later he was appointed superior of Ughelli parish and in May 1963 to Agbor parish. When Benin City diocese was subdivided in 1964 Dan was incorporated into the new diocese of Warri, whose leader was Lucas Olu Nwaezeapu. Bishop Lucas assigned him to Warri parish where he served for almost three years before going home on leave. In 1968 Dan was elected delegate from his region to the Provincial Assembly of that year. He continued in Warri diocese for a further four years serving as a diocesan consultor, coordinator for diocesan projects, liaison officer for Catholic relief services and as a member of the diocesan liturgical commission. He spent part of this time in Bomadi where he composed a prayer-book in Ijaw. In the last two years he had charge of Holy Trinity parish, Ozoro.

In July 1972 Dan transferred to a new diocese, Issele Uku, created from a further subdivision of the original Benin City diocese. Anthony Okonkwo Gbuji, bishop of the diocese, appointed him first to St. Augustine's parish, Ibusa, one of the oldest missions in the diocese, established in 1899. In 1974 he was transferred to Ogwashi-Uku. This town was a major centre of resistance to British rule at the turn of the century. In 1909 during a violent confrontation, the Catholic mission had been burned by the tribesmen because the Fathers were deemed to have aided the government side. This allegation was in fact untrue. The Catholic mission was re-established soon after and went from strength to strength. Dan worked in Issele-Uku diocese until 1986 when he received sabbatical leave to look after his sick mother. In 1979 Dan celebrated his silver jubilee of ordination with members of his family, including his mother, who were now residing in the U.S.A. And it was to be near family members in America that he went to spend his last years, ministering in Brooklyn diocese until the year of his death.

In his obituary in the African Missionary, a colleague wrote of Dan: 'The Lord's call can seem premature, especially when it takes a bustling, energetic missionary like Dan. It is hard to believe that he will no longer be up and doing things in his brisk, matter-of-fact manner. I recall and see in my mind's eye Warri cathedral, the Daughters of the Charity convent in Agbor, the pastoral centre in Issele-Uku, the magnificent new church of St. Augustine in Ibusa - all evidence of his prowess as a builder. He was a great builder, a fine and inventive co-ordinator of social projects for Issele-Uku diocese, but it was above all as a pastor that he will be remembered with affection by the people of mid-western Nigeria. His rapport with the parishioners, their great participation in his daily Mass, his constant visitation of the sick, all are indicative of the close bond between priest and people which Dan nurtured. That was why people came to him for help. Intuitively they knew that a brisk, no-nonsense manner hid a warmhearted, compassionate man. Generosity and hospitality were synonymous in him. Three glorious decades of wholehearted service in Nigeria, and a final "trimming" in Rockaway, New Jersey, while tending to his aged mother. He simply brushed aside the stunning news of his terminal illness, "come on, we're not finished yet!" He eschewed sedation for the final painful battle. He was granted a graceful, peaceful end, surrounded by his sisters, who idolised him and cared so well for him, and by two of our American S.M.A. confrères, representatives of the two families he loved and served so well'.

He is buried in Mount Carmel cemetery, Tenafly, New Jersey, U.S.A.