Société des Missions Africaines –Province d'Irlande

né le 12 août 1920 à Scrivogue dans le diocèse de Kerry, Irlande membre de la SMA le 2 juillet 1944 prêtre le 13 juin 1948 décédé le 29 janvier 1984

1948-1949 Wilton, études supérieures 1949-1953 missionnaire au Nigeria, vicariat de Ondo Ilorin 1954-1959 Wilton, vice supérieur et directeur 1959-1967 missionnaire au Nigeria, diocèse de Ondo 1968-1976 au service de la Province de Grande Bretagne 1976-1978 Blackrock Road, Cork, animation 1978-1983 Dromantine, supérieur décédé à Cork, Irlande, le 29 janvier 1984, à l'âge de 63 ans

Michael Joseph O'Shea was born at Scrivogue, Allihies, Co Cork, in the diocese of Kerry, on 12 August 1920. He died in the Mercy hospital, Cork, on 29 January 1984.

Michael (Mick) studied at the Sacred Heart college, Ballinafad, Co Mayo (1937 1939) and at St. Joseph's college, Wilton, Cork (1939 194l). He entered the Society's novitiate and house of philosophy, at Kilcolgan, Co Galway, in the autumn of 1942 and studied theology at Dromantine, Co Down, from 1944 1948. He became a member of the Society on 2 July 1944 and was ordained a priest at St. Colman's cathedral, Newry, on 13 June 1948. He was one of a group of fourteen ordained on that day. The ordaining prelate was Bishop Eugene O'Doherty of Dromore diocese. During his years of training Michael attended U.C.C. (194l 42) and U.C.G. (1942-1944), studying philosophy and education. He was awarded a B.A. degree in June 1944.

After ordination Michael returned to U.C.C. graduating with a higher diploma in education in June 1949. He was then assigned to the Ondo Ilorin vicariate, a jurisdiction in south-western Nigeria which had been first erected in 1943, through a division of the old vicariate of the Bight of Benin, and which within a year of his arrival would become the diocese of Ondo, under Bishop Thomas Hughes. In the years before the second world war much of the emphasis in the Nigerian mission fields had been on the development of elementary education. Now, in the aftermath of the war and with Nigerian independence looming on the horizon, there was a growing demand among the people for secondary education. The colonial government too, accepting the inevitability of independence, was anxious to educate Nigerians for the heavy responsibilities which lay ahead. The catholic mission was in the forefront of efforts to respond to this new situation. It was against this background that, when Michael arrived in western Nigeria, he was immediately assigned to a teaching ministry, becoming a staff member at St. Augustine's teacher training college in Akure, under the principalship of Ben Dolan. In 1951, Bishop Hughes opened a secondary college in Akure, under the title of St. Thomas Aquinas. Michael was a member of the founding staff under the principalship of John Keaveney.

In 195l St. Joseph's college, Wilton, ceased to be an apostolic school and, two years later, became instead a university hostel for S.M.A. students attending U.C.C. In September 1954 Michael was installed as director of students and vice superior, serving there for five years. He is remembered by students from that period as a fair-minded, approachable man, who well understood the pressures of university life. In 1958 Mick was elected as a delegate to the Provincial Assembly of that year. In June of the following year he returned to Ondo diocese where he was to serve until April 1967. During most of this time (1960-1967) he was principal of St. Thomas Aquinas college which by then had become one of the foremost secondary schools in Nigeria, training students to advanced level.

In 1968 Mick was seconded to the newly established British Province of the Society which was short of personnel, and for the following eight years (1968 1976) he helped in building up that Province. On his return to Ireland, in 1976, he was first attached to the African Missionary office (promotion and management) and then, in 1978, was appointed superior of the S.M.A. house at Dromantine. He worked there until he became ill in 1983. He then came to Blackrock Road and some weeks before his death entered the Mercy hospital.

Michael's gentle manner and his kindness endeared him to people wherever he worked. His obituary in the African Missionary, written by a colleague who was close to him during his last years in Dromantine, contains the following revealing passage: 'On his mantelpiece was a card with the legend "take time" and he remained faithful to that all his life. Whatever he was at was dropped once a living human being came on the scene, especially a living human being with any trouble or worry... he was a "holy man" in a most attractive way'.

He is buried in Wilton cemetery.