Société des Missions Africaines –Province d'Irlande

né le 26 octobre 1898 à Oola dans le diocèse de Limerick, Irlande membre de la SMA le 8 juillet 1925 prêtre le 9 juin 1939 décédé le 12 septembre 1971

1929-1966 missionnaire au Nigeria diocèse de Benin City 1966-1969 repos en famille 1969-1971 Mornington, aumônier décédé à Drogheda, Irlande, le 12 septembre 1971, à l'âge de 73 ans

John Lynott was born in Oola, Co Limerick, in the diocese of Limerick, on 26 October 1898. He died, as a result of an accident, in Our Lady of Lourdes hospital, Drogheda, on 12 September 1971.

Born in Oola, John moved with his family to Bruree, Co Limerick in 1901. He received his secondary education at the Christian Brothers school in Charleville, Co Cork. He then entered St. Mary's training college, Hammersmith, London and became an elementary school teacher. He taught in England for some time before entering the S.M.A. novitiate and house of philosophy at Kilcolgan, Co Galway, in the autumn of 1923. Two years later, on 8 July 1925, he was received into the Society. He studied theology in St. Joseph's seminary, Blackrock Road, Cork, and at Dromantine, Co Down, to which the seminary was transferred in 1926. He was ordained a priest by Bishop Edward Mulhern of Dromore diocese, in St. Colman's cathedral, Newry, on 9 June 1929. He was one of a group of fifteen ordained on that day.

After ordination John was appointed to the vicariate of Western Nigeria, which was the first mission in Nigeria to be entrusted to the Irish Province, when Thomas Broderick was appointed vicar apostolic in 1918. Bishop Broderick was the first member of the Province to achieve episcopal rank. John was to serve in this region for a total of 37 years first in the vicariate (1929 1947), then after its division, in the newly erected vicariate of Asaba Benin (1948 1952); and finally, after the erection of the Nigerian hierarchy, in the diocese of Benin City, under Patrick J. Kelly. When John first arrived in Nigeria, in October 1929, he was posted to Ibusa. This mission station had been founded in 1899 under the patronage of St. Augustine. Ibusa was also the home of St. Thomas' teacher training college, established by Bishop Broderick in 1928 to provide qualified teachers for the vicariate's many elementary schools. Val Barnicle and Jack O'Shea taught in the college while John and Eugene McSweeney worked in the parish. In June 1931 John was appointed superior of Ukoni district, which had twenty nine outstations, and which catered for some 400 catholic members and 50 catechumens. John spent much of his time on trek, visiting the outstations and establishing new ones. During the first six months of 1933 he founded eight new outstations. In August of the same year he went to Ireland on his first home leave.

John returned to Nigeria in October 1934, resuming his duties in Ukoni. He spent his entire second tour of duty in this district. When he next went on leave, in July 1938, the Ukoni Church had over 2,000 catholic members and 1,000 catechumens. John's return to Nigeria, in November 1939, coincided with the nomination of Patrick J. Kelly as vicar apostolic. John commenced this third tour of duty at Ukoni. In 1941, under John's supervision, the district's headquarters was moved to a new building in nearby Uromi. All his years in Ukoni John lived alone. In 1942, however, he received an assistant. When John returned from his next home leave, in June 1948, he was assigned to Aragba mission where he was assisted by Joseph Erameh, a Nigerian priest who had been ordained in 1936. A year later John was appointed superior of Ashaka mission, with Michael Cavanagh as his assistant. Ashaka mission, founded in 1926, had a thriving catholic community of over 4,000 members and over 1,000 catechumens. There were 35 elementary schools in the district with 4,000 pupils. In 1955 Bishop Kelly transferred John to his first mission, Ibusa, where again he took charge of the parish. On his return from his next home leave, in January 1959, John was posted to Issele Uku, which was to become the seat of a diocese in 1973.

John worked in Benin City diocese until August 1966 when he returned to Ireland in poor health. He spent a lengthy period convalescing in the household of his sister, Mrs Margaret Pollard, at Davis street, in Limerick city. In April 1969 he took up a chaplaincy with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which had a Holiday Camp (for children and for elderly people) at Mornington, near Drogheda. On 12 September 1971 while walking near the camp he was struck by a car and died about an hour later in Our Lady of Lourdes hospital, Drogheda. John's obituary in the African Missionary paints the following portrait: 'John was a loveable character, his individualism and eccentricity making him something of a legend among people and confreres. Although trained as a teacher, he appears to have had little taste for such work. While he gave class in Ibusa college, a government inspector sitting at the back corrected him. Johnny pelted the chalk at him and told him to take the class himself. He is said never to have taught again. It was an experience to visit his house in Issele Uku, to read the slogans he had pasted on the walls, and to see old out of date Irish newspapers laid out on the floor, to be taken up and read each day. In later life, at Mornington, he was dearly loved by the elderly men and women who availed of the facilities of the holiday camp. '

He is buried in Wilton cemetery.