Société des Missions Africaines –Province d'Irlande

né le 10 juin 1916 à Belmullet dans le diocèse de Killala, Irlande membre de la SMA le 2 juillet 1939 prêtre le 19 décembre 1942 décédé le 6 août 1987

1943-1947 Ballinafad, professeur 1947-1948 Wilton, études supérieures 1948-1969 missionnaire au Nigeria archidiocèse de Lagos 1969-1987 Australie 1969-1978, collège Saint Bredan 1978-1981, Beaconsfield, paroisse 1981-1987, retiré 1987 Irlande, retiré décédé à Belmullet, Irlande, le 6 août 1987, à l'âge de 71 ans

John McAndrew was born at Belmullet, Co Mayo (the family address was Main Street, Belmullet), in the diocese of Kilalla, on 10 June 1916. He died at the district hospital, Belmullet, on 6 August 1987.

John studied at the Sacred Heart college, Ballinafad, Co Mayo (1932 1933) and St. Joseph's college, Wilton, Cork, before entering the S.M.A. novitiate and house of philosophy, at Kilcolgan, Co Galway, in September 1937. Two years later, on 2 July 1939, he was received as a member of the Society. He received his theological formation in the Society's seminary, at Dromantine, Co Down. John was ordained a priest, along with eight colleagues, in the chapel of the Sacred Heart Missionaries at Moyne Park, Tuam, Co Galway, on 19 December 1942. The ordaining prelate was Archbishop Joseph Walsh. Since 1927 Society ordinations had taken place in Newry cathedral, but wartime travel restrictions, which prevented families travelling long distances, led to a change in 1942. There centres were chosen, Dromantine chapel for the northerners, Skibbereen cathedral for those from the south and Moyne Park for the westerners.

During his last year in Wilton (1936 1937) John had attended lectures in the arts faculty at U.C.C. He continued his degree studies while in Kilcolgan, going to U.C.G. one day each week and receiving additional lectures in the house from a priest designated for that purpose by the university. He was awarded a B.A. degree (philosophy and education) in June 1939. John's fine undergraduate record marked him out for a teaching ministry. After ordination he spent four years (1943 1947) on the teaching staff at Ballinafad where pupils studied up to intermediate certificate level. Changing circumstances in the Society's West African mission fields (especially Nigeria and the Gold Coast) had a bearing on John's next appointment. After the world war the colonial authorities began to develop secondary education and were prepared to subsidise voluntary agencies prepared to open schools. The missionary bishops saw the provision of secondary education as important, not only for the welfare of the countries, but also for the progress of the Church. Thus it was that they requested the Society's authorities in Ireland to intensify the training of graduate priests, to recruit lay graduates and to release as many qualified personnel as possible for service in Africa. It was in response to such requests that John was sent to U.C.C. in September 1947 to study for a teaching diploma (necessary for secondary teaching in Nigeria). After a year, during which he resided in Wilton and taught in the school (which prepared pupils for leaving certificate in a three year cycle), John was awarded his diploma in June 1948. He was then assigned to the Lagos vicariate, in south western Nigeria, a jurisdiction which had been entrusted to the care of the Irish Province in 1930.

On his arrival in Lagos in December 1948, Leo Hale Taylor, the vicar apostolic, appointed John to the staff of St. Gregory's college, Ikoyi, Nigeria's first catholic secondary school, founded in 1928. He joined a staff led by Tommy Moran, and which included John Guilfoyle, Frank McGovern, and Anthony Saliu Sanusi, a Nigerian who later become bishop of Ijebu Ode diocese. There were over 300 students in the college which was one of the premier educational establishments in Nigeria. John went to Ireland on his first home leave in November 1952. He returned to the jurisdiction, erected as the archdiocese of Lagos in April 1950, a year later. In January 1954 John became principal of a new Native Authority grammar school in Badagry, near Lagos, living in a government rest house while the classrooms were being constructed. John returned from his next home leave in February 1956, resuming his principalship at Badagry. Three months later he succeeded Tommy Moran as principal of St. Gregory's college, leading a staff which included Patrick J. Carroll, Brendan Haniffy, Martin Conboy and Pedro Martins (a Nigerian priest). John occupied this important post until August 1959 when he was appointed principal of St. Peter's secondary college, Aro, Abeokuta. This school had been opened in 1956, with John Guilfoyle as founder principal. The school was also known as the 'Fr. Coquard Memorial Secondary School', in memory of the celebrated S.M.A. missionary Jean Marie Coquard, a self taught surgeon, who founded the renowned Sacred Heart hospital at the turn of the century.

In March 1969 John was re assigned to the Province's mission in Perth, Western Australia. He was appointed to the staff of St. Brendan's college, situated in the S.M.A. parish at Beaconsfield. The school was located at York Street, Hilton, and had been opened in February 1964, under the principalship of Elisha O'Shea. John taught in St. Brendan's for ten years. After retiring from teaching he was attached to the S.M.A. parish. In 1981 John retired from the active ministry, remaining in Australia until 1987. He then decided to continue his retirement in Ireland, returning there in February 1987.

John was admitted to the district hospital, Belmullet, where he was on holiday, on the night of 5 August 1987, with an aneurysm of the aorta. He died peacefully three hours later at 2.45 a.m. John was a superb teacher. He taught many subjects, was particularly noted as a teacher of English, but is best remembered as a master of music. In 1949 he produced the first Gilbert and Sullivan opera to be seen in Nigeria. In St. Brendan's, Perth, his contribution in the area of music was invaluable. John's first cousin joined the Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles, taking the name Scholastica.

He is buried in Wilton cemetery.