Société des Missions Africaines –Province d'Irlande
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né le 29 avril 1915 à Broagh dans le diocèse de Derry, Irlande serment permanent le 14 juin 1941 prêtre le 14 décembre 1941 décédé le 17 février 1996 |
1942-1943 University College, Cork décédé à Magherafelt, Irlande, le 17 février 1996, |
Father John Joseph MACKLE (1915 - 1996)
John Mackle was born in Broagh, Castledawson, Co Derry, in the parish of Bellaghy, (the family address was 43, Broagh Road, Castledawson) in the diocese of Derry, on 29 April 1915. He died in the Mid-Ulster hospital, Magherafelt, Co Derry, on Saturday 17 February 1996.
John (Johnny) Mackle received his secondary education in the Sacred Heart college, Ballinafad, Co Mayo (1931-1932), and St. Joseph's college, Wilton, Cork (1932-1936). Having matriculated he entered the Society's novitiate and house of philosophy, at Kilcolgan, Co Galway, in September 1936. Two years later, in 1938, John commenced his theological formation in the Society's major seminary, at Dromantine, Co Down. During his last year in Wilton John had attended lectures at U.C.C. and continued this academic formation while in Kilcolgan, attending classes in U.C.G. and receiving additional tuition in the house from a priest designated for that purpose by the university. John was awarded an honours B.A. degree (Education and Philosophy) in September 1938. He was received as a member of the Society on 14 June 1941 and was ordained a priest, along with nine colleagues, by Bishop Edward Mulhern of Dromore diocese, in St. Colman's cathedral, Newry, on 14 December 1941.
After ordination John returned to Dromantine to complete his theological training. He was then appointed to study at U.C.C. where (residing at Blackrock Road) he was awarded a higher diploma in education in June 1943. John was now appointed to the vicariate of Lagos, in Nigeria.
On his arrival in West Africa, in November 1943, the vicar apostolic, Bishop Leo Hale Taylor, appointed him to the staff of St. Gregory's college, Lagos, Nigeria's first Catholic secondary school opened by Dr. Taylor in 1928. John was to serve in south-western Nigeria until 1966. After six years in St. Gregory's he was appointed superior of Oke Are seminary (Ibadan), which provided secondary education for seminarians from several jurisdictions in the south-west. In 1953 John was assigned to the staff of the newly erected Ibadan prefecture and it was in this jurisdiction that he was to make his most far-reaching missionary contribution. Richard Finn, the prefect apostolic (appointed bishop of Ibadan diocese in 1958) was anxious to develop the education apostolate and he commissioned John to establish a second-level college. Bringing to this task his extensive experience of education and many other gifts besides, John was to become founder-principal of Loyola college, the first Catholic boys residential secondary grammar school in Ibadan. Permission to open the college was received from the Ministry of Education in January 1954 and efforts were made immediately to acquire a suitable site. One was found on the old Ife road, on the outskirts of Ibadan, and after its purchase had been negotiated with Chief Irefin and his family, work began at once on clearing the land. Building began in June 1954.
However six months earlier, in January, John had opened the college in temporary quarters at Oke Offa parish. John maintained that the first essential ingredient in a successful college was to ensure a high-quality intake at the beginning. Hence he personally conducted and supervised the initial entrance examination and interviews. At its commencement the school was simply known as 'The Catholic Secondary School'. It was not until 1956, when fine new buildings were ready for habitation, that it was given the name 'Loyola College'. It was John who proposed the name and, it was said, that he chose the great Jesuit saint because there was at the time a question of giving charge of the school to the Dominicans (then in Lagos).
Whatever the case, under the inspired leadership of John, Loyola quickly won a reputation for the excellence of its tuition, its students regularly gaining top places in the West African School Certificate examination. In 1962 Loyola was listed as one of the few colleges in Nigeria entitled to prepare and enter students for the Higher School Certificate examinations and, again, its record in these examinations (equivalent to A-Levels) was excellent. John led a talented teaching staff which included his confrères Michael Kennedy (vice-principal), Sean O'Connell, P.J. Kileen, Frank Coltsman and Maurice (Mossie) Kelleher and also several Irish lay graduates including Kathleen Cleary, Madeleine O'Shea, Eileen Kennedy, Jim Horgan, Phil O'Flynn, Peggy Forbes, Seamus Purvis, Frank Fahey and Michael Ryan. The most prominent of the African teachers was Dr. Joseph Obemeata (later principal of Fatima college and lecturer in Ibadan university). College secretaries included Rosemary Horgan and Trudy Johnson, wife of the architect, Geoff Johnson who designed the college chapel which was constructed in 1962.
In 1966 John fell into poor health and was compelled to resign his principalship. After a period of convalescence in Ireland, during which it became clear that he would not be able to return to the tropics, he was assigned to Dromantine where he taught philosophy. In 1969 John took up a temporary pastoral appointment in the archdiocese of Armagh (Crossmaglen) and a year later transferred to the diocese of Down and Connor. After some twenty-six years in the classroom, John found the pastoral ministry a welcome change and relished the new challenges which it brought. He was to spend twenty-two years of fruitful ministry in the diocese of Down and Connor, all of them as curate in Aghagallon parish, near Lurgan. John celebrated the golden jubilee of his priesthood in 1991, spending the last year of his life retired with his family, at Castledawson, Co Derry.
A gifted teacher of both English and Latin and also an excellent administrator, John had considerable practical skills which he brought to bear in the construction and expansion of Loyola college. John too had the eye of an artist and sketching skills to match, which also contributed in no small way to the success of his building projects. John was one of the closest associates of Bishop Finn and a personal friend. On hearing of the bishop's death in 1989 he wrote to an old Ibadan colleague: 'A very special link with the past has been broken. We were together more or less since 1933'. At the time John was himself in poor health, but was still able to minister in Aghagallon parish. Poignantly he added: 'I run out of steam very quickly and then have to sit down. However I am blessed in having a very understanding and kind P.P. (Canon Raymond Fitzpatrick). I can still say Mass and hear confessions and visit the people'. He also maintained a keen interest in the Society's missionary work, making financial contributions whenever he was able.
The esteem in which John was held by his parishioners in Aghagallon was reflected in their insistence that on his death his remains should be brought into their midst for wake-keeping and that his requiem Mass should be celebrated in their own St. Patrick's church where he had served for so many years. Bishop Patrick Walsh of Down and Connor who was principal celebrant quoted from a letter written to him by John in 1994 (on his retirement) illustrating his attachment to this parish: 'I loved the people here and it pains me to go but such is life. I have received nothing but kindness ... since I came to the diocese in 1970.' During the course of the Mass the parish choir sang a hymn which had been composed by John some years before his death:
Be with me always Jesus my Saviour
Be with me to the end of my days
Be with me always Jesus my Saviour
Be with me as I go on life's way.
Be with me in the morn and eventide
Be with me when my days are dull and grey
Be with me when I'm low and lonely
Be with me to my dying day.
After the Mass John's remains were taken to his beloved South Derry for burial. John brought to his work, both in Nigeria and Ireland, great gifts of kindness, courtesy, compassion and patience. Fittingly, shortly after his death, on 14 March 1996, a requiem Mass for the repose of his soul was celebrated in Ibadan (in the presence of Archbishop Felix A. Job) attended by large numbers of Loyola Old Boys and the present generation of students. At the end of the Mass the National President of Loyola Old Boys, Mr. Ishola, gave an oration in which he described John as 'one of the best spiritual leaders ever to come to Nigeria'. Later the Old Boys Association presented a posthumous ’distinguished service award’, ’in recognition of his outstanding service as the founding principal of Loyla’ which is now displayed in the archives of the Irish Province at Blackrock Road. John's younger brother, Patrick (Paddy), was ordained a member of the Society in 1950.
He is buried in St. Mary's cemetery, Magherafelt, Bellaghy, Co Derry.
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