Société des Missions Africaines –Province d'Irlande

(biographie en anglais à la suite)

Le père Patrick J. J. O'HERLIHY (1892 - 1945)

A Cork, le 25 janvier 1945, retour à Dieu du père Patrick O'Herlihy, à l'âge de 52 ans.

Patrick O'Herlihy naquit à Cork, en Irlande, le 15 mars 1892. Il fit toutes ses études dans les maisons de la Société. En 1911, il faisait son serment et le 15 juillet 1914 il était ordonné prêtre en Egypte, où il enseignait déjà depuis deux ans. Il reste encore deux ans au vicariat du Delta du Nil, continuant son enseignement au collège de Tanta.

En 1916, il devenait professeur à Wilton et en 1918 il partait pour le Liberia. Après y avoir passé trois ans, il partait pour le vicariat de la Nigeria Occidentale.

Revenu en Irlande en 1925, il fut successivement professeur à Ballinabad et à Wilton. Nommé économe à Kilcogan en 1930, il passa à Blackrock en 1934, toujours comme économe, emploi où il réussit très bien. Il réussit si bien que le conseil provincial de 1937 lui confiait le poste d'économe provincial. Malade, il dût démissionner en 1944.

Father Patrick J.J. O'HERLIHY (1892 - 1945)

Patrick O'Herlihy was born in Friars Street, in the south parish of Cork city, (one source says that the family lived in Kevin St. off Patrick St.) on 14 March 1892. He died in the Mercy hospital, Cork, on 25 January 1945.

When Patrick ('Pa' to his fellow-missionaries) was one year old his father, employed by Pickford & Co, Carriers, was killed in a cart accident near the Cork Agricultural Show Grounds. Patrick was the youngest of four children. He received his early education from the Presentation nuns and the Christian brothers. He was only thirteen when he entered St. Joseph’s College, Wilton. His secondary studies completed, in 1909 he was promoted to study philosophy at St. Joseph's seminary, Blackrock Road, Cork. In December 1912 he went to Egypt, to the Society's seminary at Choubra (near Cairo), where he taught English and completed his theological studies begun in Cork. During his time at Blackrock Road he had attended U.C.C. for two years (1909 19ll) studying philosophy (it appears that the Society was unable at this time to adequately staff its 'philosophical' seminary at Blackrock). Others in his class who availed of the lectures at U.C.C. for their philosophy requirement were Leo H. Taylor, later to become archbishop of Lagos, and John Collins, later bishop in Liberia. Pat was received into the Society on 31 December 19ll and was ordained a priest in the chapel of the seminary at Choubra by Auguste Duret, vicar apostolic of the Nile Delta, on 19 July 19l4, less than a month before the outbreak of the first world war.

Patrick served in the first world war as an army chaplain, stationed in Egypt, and was decorated for his courageous zeal. He spent a short period on the Wilton staff after the war before being assigned to Africa. He was appointed to the Liberian mission field, where attempts to establish the Church had made little progress since the first missionaries arrived there in the mid-19th century. Patrick reached Liberia in October 1918, in the wake of a civil war between the indigenous population on the Kru Coast and the Americo Liberian ruling elite. He joined a staff of eight priests, under the leadership of Jean Ogé who assigned him to the Kru Coast mission. Patrick spent three years in this difficult environment before his health gave cause for concern. After a rest in Ireland, in 192l he transferred to the vicariate of Western Nigeria, a jurisdiction which had been entrusted to the Irish Province in 19l8 under Bishop Thomas Broderick, and where already a vigorous and developing catholic community was in place. Patrick was appointed to the staff of St. Martin's seminary, at Iviakpodi, in the district of Agenebode, where Gabriel Lelièvre was superior and the other member of staff was Paul Emecete, Nigeria's first indigenous priest. The seminary had a complement of 6 students and its staff also catered for a community of some 500 Catholics in three outstations. In 1923 Patrick was appointed to Lokoja mission, a long-established station founded in 1884, where there were three other Fathers and a catholic community of almost two thousand. Lokoja (now a diocese in its own right) had numerous outstations and Patrick was given special responsibility for the development of these. In May 1925 Patrick's health again deteriorated and he was compelled to return to Ireland.

He was to spend the remainder of his life in the houses of the Irish Province, either teaching or in charge of the material welfare of the members. A blunt, straightforward man, he served on the teaching staff at Ballinafad (1925 1927) and at Wilton (1927 1930); he was then appointed bursar at Kilcolgan and later, from 1934, at the S.M.A. house, Blackrock Road (where missionaries recuperated). His skill as an administrator was again recognised when in 1937, after the Provincial Assembly of that year, he was appointed Provincial procurator, with responsibility for the financial administration of the Province. Invalided from this responsible post in 1943 he spent his last years in semi retirement first in Kilcolgan and then in Blackrock Road. Patrick was survived by his mother, by his sister Mary Ellen (Dotie) and his brother Christy. A third brother, Michael, had been killed while serving in the British Expeditionary Force in February 1918.

In his obituary, in The African Missionary, Patrick was described as being: ‘correct, down to the last detail and the exact minute; he was the kind of priest you associate with the biretta. He was the soul of integrity and honesty and always well calculated to startle, if not offend, by the crystal directness of his fidelity to truth.

He is buried in Wilton cemetery.