Société des Missions Africaines –Province d'Irlande

né le 13 septembre 1925 à Manorhamilton dans le diocèse de Kilmore, Irlande membre de la SMA le 18 août 1947 décédé le 15 novembre 1990

1947-1990 Blackrock Road, Cork, services divers décédé à Cork, Irlande, le 15 novembre 1990, à l'âge de 66 ans

Michael Walsh was born in Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim, in the diocese of Kilmore, on 13 September 1925. He died in the Bon Secours hospital, Cork, on 15 November 1990.

Raised at Briscloonagh, Glenfarne, in the parish of Cloonclare, Co Leitrim, Michael came from a family with strong nationalist leanings. His mother was a first cousin of Sean Mac Diarmuida, one of the 1916 Easter Proclamation signatories. Michael was a postulant brother with the Salesians, at Ballinakill, Co Laois (1943-1944) when he decided on a missionary vocation. He joined the S.M.A. novitiate at Kilcolgan, Co Galway, on 1 February 1945. Michael was received as a member of the Society on 15 August 1947. His novitiate complete, he was now appointed to the S.M.A. house, at Blackrock Road, Cork, where he was to remain until his unexpected death 43 years later.

When Michael first came to Blackrock Road, he joined a permanent community of sixteen priests and five brothers, the number of which was increased by some ten missionaries on leave from the missions and another five with serious health problems. Of the permanent community, six priests members were attending U.C.C. Three more were engaged in propaganda and recruitment. Then there was the public church, also the community oratory, to be administered. There was a winery, in which imported altar wine was bottled and distributed to parishes throughout the length and breadth of the country. Blackrock Road too was the home of the Provincial and the Provincial bursar, as well as the editorial and distribution office of the African Missionary. It was a busy, bustling house, with a great variety of tasks to be done, especially by the small staff of brothers.

Michael had fragile health and from September 1948 until August 1949 he was confined to St. Joseph's hospital, Mount Desert, Cork, with tuberculosis. A further episode of the illness was diagnosed in June 1954 and he was a patient in Heatherside sanatorium (near Doneraile, Co Cork) until December of the same year. Despite his poor health Michael lived a full life and never spared himself in his service of the Blackrock Road community. He was a skilled gardener and painter and, for many years, was sacristan in the house oratory. His services were greatly in demand, not only in Blackrock Road, but in other houses of the Society. For a period in the late 1970's and early 1980's he spent part of his summer holidays decorating and maintaining the S.M.A. house at Wellington Road, Dublin. But Michael's greatest contribution was his kindness to members invalided home from the missions, whose needs he tended to with kindness, understanding and good humour. His relationship with the various 'knights of the road', who visited Blackrock Road over the years, was a mystery to many confreres. His meetings with such callers would often be signalled by the sound of raised voices and colourful idiom, sometimes even the stamping of feet and the slamming of doors. No one knew what it all signified. But one thing was sure: it was always Michael that they sought when next they came.

On 4 November 1990 Michael was involved in a motor car accident at Charleville, Co Cork. Two days later he complained of chest pains and was admitted to the Bon Secours hospital, Cork, where he died. The following portrait of Michael, penned by a colleague who knew him well, appeared in the Provincial journal for members, Link. 'Few confreres have been as well known in Cork and within the Society as Brother Michael. His gifts, ministry and works differed from those of the front-line missionary in Africa but his contribution to the S.M.A. effort was no less valuable. Gregarious and sociable, he had a positive outlook and ready wit which lightened the heart of many a missionary returning to Blackrock Road. He had a keen and observant eye allied to a great capacity for shrewd and discerning comment on a wide variety of topics. Many a group discussion was enriched when high-flown ideas were often reduced to more manageable proportions by one of Brother Michael's well-directed aphorisms. During his long years of continuous service in Blackrock Road he won the affection not only of his confreres, but also of the public at large. His funeral at Wilton, Cork - one of the largest ever seen - was testimony to this.'

He is buried in Wilton cemetery.