Société des Missions Africaines - Province d’Irlande

né le 16 septembre 1907 à Corofin dans l’archidiocèse de Tuam, Irlande membre de la SMA le 2 juillet 1931 prêtre le 21 décembre 1934 décédé le 15 juin 1997

1935-1946 vicariat du Bénin, Nigeria 1947-1951 vicariat de Lagos, Nigeria 1952-1953 archidiocèse de Lagos, Nigeria 1953-1956 préfecture d’Ibadan, Nigeria 1957-1966 diocèse d’Ibadan, Nigeria 1966-1967 Doughcloyne, Cork, économe 1967-1968 diocèse d’Ibadan, Nigeria 1978-1981 Blackrock Road, Cork, retiré 1981-1982 Kilcogan, aumônier 1982-1997 Blackrock Road, Cork, retiré décédé à Cork, Irlande, le 15 juin 1997 à l’âge de 89 ans

Lawrence Francis Dolan was born in Corofin, Ballyglunin, Go Galway, in the archdiocese of Tuam, on 16 September 1907. He died in the Society's Irish motherhouse, at Blackrock Road, Cork, on 15 June 1997.

Lawrence (Larry) Dolan first came into contact with the Society through reading the African Missionary. Later he met Fr. Martin Bane S.M.A. and other missionaries (not members of the Society) and clerical students from the parish. Larry entered St. Joseph's college, Wilton, Cork, in 1926. Three years later, after completing his secondary education he was promoted to the Society's novitiate and house of philosophy, at Kilcolgan, Co Galway. Larry received his theological formation in the Society's major seminary, at Dromantine, Co Down, between 1931 and 1935. Larry was received as a member of the Society on 2 July 1931. He was ordained a priest by Bishop Edward Mulhern of Dromore diocese, in St. Colman's cathedral, Newry, on 21 December 1934, one of a class of twelve ordained on that day (known subsequently in the Society as the 'Apostles'). Larry was a member of the first class to be ordained at Christmas. Previously the ordinations took place in summer. He said his first Mass in Corofin, assisted by Fr. Joyce the parish priest.

One of the highlights of his student years (also an indicator of his toughness and resilience) was a three-week cycling tour around the coast of Ireland which he undertook in the Summer of 1932 with Peter Bennett, Kevin McKeown and Dick Tobin. During that same summer too he attended the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin. Larry was keenly interested in sport and, in his youth, a good footballer, playing with Corofin in 1932 in its historic first county-championship win. He was also noted for a wry sense of humour and a liking for practical jokes (even to the extent of relaying 'misleading' football results to ardent followers of Mayo's fortunes in Nigeria). Larry was to be one of the first of a long line of S.M.A. missionaries to come from Corofin parish.

After ordination Larry returned to Dromantine for six months to complete his theological course. During that time he received his first mission appointment. He was assigned to the vicariate of the Bight of Benin in south western Nigeria. After a departure ceremony in Cork, in October 1935, Larry sailed for west Africa on the Elder Dempster liner, the Abosso. There was a large party of missionaries on the ship which called at the Canary Islands, Freetown, Bathurst and Takoradi before reaching Lagos. Larry's first posting, given to him by Francis O'Rourke, bishop of the vicariate, was to the town of Abeokuta, capital of the Egbas. Here, under the supervision of Pat Hurst he spent two months learning the language and doing pastoral work.

In January 1936 he was transferred to Holy Cross mission, the oldest station in Lagos. Here the superior, Fr. Jean Grando (a French confrère), gave him charge of the cathedral schools. Larry retained this 'managership', catering for some 3,000 children (located in six schools) for about three years. During this time he assisted in the pastoral work of the cathedral and among those who he baptised was a baby boy called Anthony Olabumi Okogie, the present archbishop of Lagos. After three years in Holy Cross Larry was transferred to Ijebu-Ode, a largely rural area some north-east of Lagos. This appointment was made in response to the tragic deaths of two young priests in this mission a short time before. They were Eamonn Murphy who died six weeks after arriving in Africa, and Tommy Rolt who had been in Ijebu-Ode for a few months. Larry was sent as a replacement and, possessing a strong faith, took the uncertainty of the situation in his stride. After nine months in this region Larry was due his first home leave and sailed for Ireland shortly after the outbreak of the World War.

Larry's first home leave was prolonged because of the difficulty in obtaining a sea-passage in wartime. Finally, early in 1941 he got a passage on a convoy which assembled at Grenoch in the north of Scotland. Two days out to sea the convoy was bombed and Larry's ship was damaged. However repairs were made and while they never rejoined the convoy they did succeed in making their way to West Africa without further alarm. Bishop O'Rourke had died in October 1938 and it was his successor, Leo Hale Taylor, who appointed Larry for some months to Oshogbo and then to the Services Inn at Eligbata in the docks area of Lagos city. The Services Inn consisted of a canteen and hostel with some 25 beds. Soldiers, sailors and airmen came in from the ships or from the Army and Airforce encampments in Appapa and Eshodi. Many of them had come from up-country and were on their way to Burma. Others were on their way back. Larry's job was to run the Services Inn for these, and also to go out to the various encampments and to minister to Catholics there. The people Larry dealt with were mostly Africans. He spent the remaining time of his tour of duty in this work, sailing to Ireland without incident, late in 1944.

When Larry next returned to Africa, in 1945, the war was drawing to a close. Re-appointed to the Services Inn, he was anxious to develop the surrounding district into a parish and obtained permission to establish a church and school. Shortly after completing this work (the area is now a full parish) Larry was appointed to Ibonwon where he spent three years, working with Dick Fitzgerald. His next appointment was to Abeokuta where he did much to develop the important outstation of Meko. On his return from his next home leave, in 1953, Larry became a founder member of the staff of the prefecture of Ibadan, a jurisdiction carved out of the Lagos vicariate in that year and placed under the leadership of Richard Finn. Apart from a very brief period as bursar in Doughcloyne (the hostel for African students attending U.C.C.) between September 1966 and April 1967, Larry was to spend the remaining years of his active priesthood - some twenty-six years - working in the Ibadan jurisdiction. In 1958 he had the joy of seeing Ibadan erected as a diocese, and in 1993 as an archdiocese. Larry's first appointment was to Oke Padi, the only residential station in the prefecture, where there was an old dilapidated church. Not too far distant, at Oke Are, was the minor seminary for south-western Nigeria (St. Theresa's), and priests from here helped at Oke Padi at week-ends. Other central missions had just been started at Oke Offa and Oke Ado, formerly outstations of Oke Padi. The only other institutions in the prefecture were the O.L.A. convent and secondary school at Oke Ado and a handful of outstations, some with schools attached.

One of Larry's principal tasks in the early years was to build a new church at Oke Padi, little knowing that within a matter of years this was to become the cathedral of a diocese. Mgr. Finn and the handful of Fathers in the jurisdiction, acquired sites for new churches, schools and hospitals in many places and soon there was a growing number of residential stations, including Mokola, Ikire and Moor Plantation. Larry played an important role in these developments, especially in the building of fine new churches in Moor Plantation, Oke Offa and later Oke Ado. Larry ministered in Oke Padi until 1963 after which he was posted to Oke Offa. After his return from home leave in 1966 Larry ministered in Oke Ado and four years later in the more recent station of Yemetu (founded in 1964 by Sean Cantillon). From 1974 until his retirement from Nigeria in 1979, Larry was parish priest of Eleta, where the Medical Missionaries of Mary had their hospital. Larry described Eleta parish as 'an interesting place - very far out into the real native or pagan part of the city'. Here he lived with Brother Brendan Murray, one of the Province's leading artists, who died prematurely in March 1996.

During the 1970's the long years spent in Africa began to take their toll on Larry and after hospitalisation and a period of convalescence in Blackrock Road, he yielded to the advice of his doctors and his superiors and agreed to retire. However, in better health and believing he was capable of further service, in February 1981 he took up a chaplaincy in St. Columba's Nursing Home, Cloughballymore, Kilcolgan (the old S.M.A. novitiate). However on the closure of the Nursing Home in April 1982, Larry returned to Blackrock Road, remaining there until his death. In the last year of his life Larry's health suffered a sharp deterioration and his death was not unexpected. When he died Larry was the oldest member of the Irish Province. He went to meet his Maker as he lived - quietly, peacefully and without making a fuss. He said once, reflecting on his life: 'Thank God I was always very happy in Nigeria and it was the people, who, under God, kept me happy'. Larry was greatly loved by his family in the west of Ireland. Among those who grieved at his passing was his sister Margaret who was then 104 years old.

He is buried in Wilton cemetery.