Société des Missions Africaines – Province d’Irlande

né le 8 juillet 1918 dans le diocèse d’Elphin (Irlande) membre de la SMA 1er juillet 1941 prêtre le 17 décembre 1944 décédé le 1er février 2005

1946-1970 missionnaire au Liberia 1971-1988 diocèse d’Hexham & Newcastle (UK) 1989-1994 Wilton, paroisse sma 1994-2002 Wilton, retiré 2002-2005 Blackrock Road, Cork, retiré décédé le 1er février 2005 à Cork, Irlande, à l’âge de 86 ans

Father Thomas James HIGGINS (1918 2005)

Thomas Higgins was born in Sligo (the family lived at New Street, Sligo), in the diocese of Elphin, on 8th July 1918.
He died in St. Theresa’s Nursing Unit, SMA house, Blackrock Road, Cork, on 1st February 2005.

Thomas (Tom) Higgins was one of six children (three boys and three girls) born to Thomas and Catherine (nee Gorman), of St. John’s parish, Sligo. Tom became interested in the priesthood at a young age. He attributed his decision to enter the SMA to a talk on missions given by a Fr. Cogan, then a member of staff at Summerhill College in Sligo. Tom completed his primary education with the Marist Brothers in Sligo. He received his secondary schooling in the Society’s Sacred Heart College, Ballinafad, Co Mayo (the junior cycle college) and at St. Joseph’s College, Wilton, Cork (the senior cycle college). He matriculated and received his leaving certificate in 1938. He then entered the Society’s novitiate and house of philosophy, at Kilcolgan, Co Galway. Much later in life – when celebrating his Golden Jubilee of priesthood - he recalled the ‘spiritual atmosphere’ of this house and the ‘great family spirit’ that existed between staff and students. Two years later he was promoted to the Society’s major seminary, at Dromantine, Newry, Co Down. During his last year in Wilton Tom had attended Arts lectures at University College Cork. While in Kilcolgan he attended lectures at University College, Galway, and in-house lectures given by a designated SMA priest. In 1941 he was awarded a B.A. degree (his subjects were philosophy and education). Tom was first received as a member of the Society on 1st July 1941. He became a permanent member on 17th June 1944. Mid-way through his fourth year of Theology Tom was ordained a priest by Bishop Eugene O’Doherty of Dromore diocese, in St. Colman’s cathedral, Newry. The ordination took place on 17th December 1944. Tom was one of a class of seventeen ordained on that day. He celebrated his first Mass on 18 December at the Ursuline Convent in Sligo.

After ordination Tom was appointed to the Vicariate of Monrovia, in Liberia. Tom was to work in Liberia until 1970. He began as a teacher, was later a pastor and still later an administrator. His first tour of duty, during which he taught in St. Patrick’s High School, Monrovia, commenced in February 1946 and concluded in December 1950. In the second year of his second tour, from September 1953, Tom served as Regional Superior, responsible to his superiors in Ireland for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the confreres in Liberia. Tom was to hold this difficult post until 1964, performing his duties in a manner pleasing to both his superiors and confreres. In particular he became noted for his compassion towards confreres in his charge and for the quality of his hospitality. During that era in Liberia finances were never too plentiful and the church was finding it extremely difficult to make ends meet from the ordinary resources of the mission. It was against this background that in 1955 Tom worked with the creative spirit of another confrere (Fr. Larry Collins) to establish a rubber plantation at Kakata to raise funds for the mission. The pioneering work in this regard was to survive up to the outbreak of the Liberia civil war in 1990.

In 1968 Tom was a delegate for his confreres at the Provincial Assembly of that year, returning to Monrovia Vicariate until he was invalided home in 1970. Tom required eye surgery and although his condition improved for a while, he was to suffer poor sight in both eyes for the remaining years of his long life. No longer able to return to the tropics, Tom took up a pastoral appointment in Hexham and Newcastle diocese, serving here until 1988. In that year he suffered a slight stroke and was hospitalised in Gateshead. After recuperation he returned to Ireland. He is described at this time as being ‘semi-retired’. In practice he was active in the SMA parish in Wilton from March 1989, serving faithfully here until his retirement from the active ministry in 1994. Tom spent the early years of his retirement in Wilton. Early in 2002 his condition deteriorated and he came to Blackrock Road, residing in St. Theresa’s Nursing Unit. He died peacefully in the presence of the Nursing Staff in St. Theresa’s, two of his confreres, and Ms Theresa Hicks, a Canadian nurse who is an Associate Member of the American Province and had worked in Liberia.

Tom found it difficult to come to terms with many of the changes, especially the liturgical, introduced by Vatican Two. He was never afraid to argue his point with great conviction. He did not cede his point easily, but he always tried to dialogue with courtesy and respect. He did more than debate; he aligned himself with some of the traditional movements within the Church, such as the movement for the restoration of the Latin Mass, and was a devoted supporter and participant until increasing fragility made it simply impossible for him to continue. In Wilton he offered a Latin Mass almost daily until he retired to Blackrock. He died just six weeks after celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of his ordination to priesthood.

He is buried in Wilton cemetery.