Société des Missions Africaines –Province d'Irlande

né le 20 août 1911 à Dublin dans le diocèse de Dublin, Irlande membre de la SMA le 9 juin 1934 prêtre le 20 décembre 1936 décédé le 15 juillet 1962

1937-1940 missionnaire au Nord Nigeria 1942 passe à la Province des USA 1942-1947 Washington, séminaire 1947-1962 Tenafly, maison provinciale membre de l'équipe d'animation décédé à Belfast, Irlande, le 15 juillet 1962, à l'âge de 51 ans

A Belfast (Irlande), le 15 juillet 1962, retour à Dieu du père Patrick O'Hara, à l'âge de 51 ans.

Patrick O'Hara naquit dans le diocèse de Dublin en 1911. Après avoir passé trois ans dans une école technique, il entrait à Wilton. Il fit son noviciat à Kilcogan et son grand séminaire à Dromantine. Il fit le serment en 1934 et fut ordonné prêtre en 1936. Malgré sa très faible santé, il passa trois ans au Nigeria, un an au Bénin et deux ans dans la préfecture de Kaduna. Revenu en Irlande en 1940 et ne pouvant compter revoir l'Afrique, le père O'Hara partit pour les Etats-Unis.

En 1942, il était transféré à la province d'Amérique. De 1942 à 1947, il travailla au séminaire de Washington et, à partir de 1947, à la maison provinciale de Tenafly. Le père O'Hara revint en Irlande pour mourir.

Father Patrick Joseph O’Hara (1911 - 1962)

Patrick O'Hara was born on August 20, 1911, in Dublin, Ireland, in the parish of Saints Michael and John. He died in Cushendall, Co Antrim, on July 15, l962. (one source says he died at his home in 163 Albert St. Belfast), Northern Ireland, (his death cert. Says he died at St. Patrick’s Industrial School Holiday Camp, Waterfoot, Co Antrim of cardiac failure

Patrick was one of six children born to Patrick and Mary (nee Conlon) O’Hara. Although born in Dublin his family lived at 163 Albert St. Belfast and it was here that he was raised. He received his early education at Slate Street elementary school, following which he spent three years at the Christian Brothers junior technical school, Hardinge Street Belfast (1924-1927). Deciding to become a missionary priest he entered the Society's apostolic school at Wilton, Cork in l928, matriculating in 1931. He made his novitiate and studied philosophy at Kilcolgan, Co Galway and completed his seminary training in the major seminary at Dromantine, Co Down. He took his oath of membership on June 9, l934 and was ordained a priest by Bishop Edward Mulhern of Dromore diocese, in St. Colman's cathedral, Newry, on December 20, 1936. He was one of a group of eighteen ordained on that day, which included his younger brother, John Anthony.

Notwithstanding fragile health Patrick was assigned to south-west Nigeria, to the Vicariate of the Bight of Benin. He arrived in Africa in October 1937, where he was assigned to the staff of St. Gregory's college, Ikoyi, Nigeria's first Catholic secondary school, founded in 1928. Patrick arrived during a crisis in the Nigerian mission. A number of Fathers had died of yellow fever in Jos prefecture and Europeans throughout Nigeria were urged by the medical authorities to go to Lagos for inoculation against this disease, or else to go to England for the injection. The serum used in Lagos was 'live' and those inoculated had to be quarantined for some weeks before being released. Two Fathers who were inoculated, Frs. Murphy and Rolt, died shortly after receiving the serum and although the medical authorities denied there was any connection, many felt that the inoculation was unsafe. Patrick was in Lagos for the burials of both Fathers (in December 1937 and March 1938). He was also one of those who took the inoculation and was quarantined in Yaba.

In April 1938 Patrick wrote to the Provincial, Stephen Harrington, telling him about his life and work. 'Lagos surprised me pleasantly. I absolutely revel in the heat. The confreres are wonderful. The two events of the past few months, when we lost Frs Murphy and Rolt with staggering suddenness, opened my eyes. One place was filled, and then the other and the mission carried on as usual. Regret, yes and grief also, but not a trace of the panic I expected and in fact which I myself was feeling. My work in St. Gregory's suits me. I like it, find it interesting and though the sudden change from student to professor rattled me, I intend making a success of it. As for my physical health. It's tip-top. So far I haven't missed a morning's Mass and can't say I've ever had a half-hour's indisposition'. Beneath the surface, however, the strain of his dramatic introduction to Nigeria was undermining his health and two months later, in June, he was hospitalised in Lagos with nervous exhaustion. The doctors could do little to alleviate his condition and he was invalided home to Ireland where he entered hospital. After some months he improved and it was thought that he might be re-assigned to the Prefecture of Kaduna, in northern Nigeria, where the climate was reputed to be better, and where his brother John was ministering. However his ill-health intensified and it was clear he was no longer fit for service in the tropics.

After a further brief period of convalescence Patrick was assigned to the USA where a Province of the Society was in the process of being formed. Alsatian members of the Society had been active in America since the start of the century, staffing African-American parishes in the state of Georgia. Missionaries of the Irish Province opened African-American mission parishes in the diocese of Belleville, Southern Illinois, in the early 1920's. The new American Province was to be formed from an amalgamation of the works of both Irish and Alsatian Provinces. The two great needs of the 'pro-Province' were personnel and funds. Both were required to put in place the infrastructure of a Province, particularly the colleges in which future members would be trained, and the apparatus for promoting the work and raising funds. Patrick was a welcome addition to the staff when he arrived in March 1939. His first assignment was to the work of promotion in Brooklyn diocese. Each week-end he preached at all the Masses in a different parish, talking about Africa and the Society's missions. During the week-days he visited the schools of the parish. After six months Patrick joined Anthony McAndrew in the Society's seminary at Silver Spring, Maryland (Washington DC), where he continued the work of promotion, often spending periods of up to two months away from the seminary, 'on the road'. Patrick became a founder member of the American Province (erected in March 1941), working from Silver Spring between l944 l947 and then in the Provincial house at Tenafly, New Jersey. He served the Province in the field of promotion and as director of vocations. Later he ministered in the Province's missions for African-Americans in Savannah, Georgia. Patrick was a warm, intelligent man, who loved to play the mandolin at gatherings. Never of robust mental or physical health, some months before his death he had returned to Ireland to recuperate after a long illness.

Patrick suffered throughout his life and although he was hospitalised on several occasions, he managed to keep working all his life although he died prematurely at the age of 51 years. His was a life of considerable suffering and hardship, but his commitment to his priesthood and the work of the Society never wavered.

He is buried in the SMA cemetery, at Wilton, Cork, Ireland.