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William Joseph Walsh was born at 11 Essex Quay in Dublin on 30 January 1841. He was the only child of Ralph Walsh, a watchmaker from County Kerry, and Mary Pierce of Galway. He was educated at St. Laurence O’Toole Seminary School in Dublin before attending Newman’s Catholic University. He then went to study at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, in 1858. Excelling at Canon Law, Hebrew, and Divinity, he completed his Ordinary Degree in 1864 followed by a combined three years of post-graduate study and lecturing in the Theology Faculty. He was ordained to the priesthood on 22 May 1866. The following year, at the age of twenty-six, Walsh was appointed Professor of Dogmatic and Moral Theology at Maynooth. He served as Vice President of the College from 1878 and was made President in 1880. On the death of Cardinal Edward McCabe (1816-1885), Walsh was appointed Archbishop of Dublin. He was appointed to the See of Dublin on 3 July 1885. This was hailed as a triumph by Irish Nationalists as Walsh’s sympathies were well known. For the next quarter of a century, Walsh was one of the dominant personalities in the Irish Catholic Church and played a key role in both pastoral and public affairs. His motto was ‘Fide et Labore’. He died on 9 April 1921 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.

Joseph Walshe was Provincial of the Irish Vincentian Province 1909-1921.

Leo Dominic Ward was born in Dublin on 8 October 1919. He was educated in Rochestown Seraphic College (County Cork), University College Cork, and at the theology house at Ard Mhuire Capuchin Friary in County Donegal. He entered the Capuchin Franciscan Order in 1939 (taking Sebastian as his religious name) and was ordained to the priesthood in 1947. From 1947, he was involved in various ministries of the Capuchin Franciscans in what is now the Province of Our Lady of Angels in the United States. His various roles included Professor of Metaphysics and Psychology at Old Mission Santa Inés in Solvang, California, Associate Pastor at St. Joseph’s Church in Roseburg, Oregon, Master of Novices at St. Patrick’s Novitiate in Wilmington, Delaware, and parish mission preacher. For periods, he also served as vocation director at San Lorenzo Seminary in Santa Inés, California, hospital chaplain in Roseburg, Oregon, and in Ukiah and Fresno, California, and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On his brief return to Ireland in the early 1970s, he acted as director of students in Raheny Capuchin Friary in Dublin. He held similar roles in St. Augustine’s Friary in Oakland, California, and at San Buenaventura Friary in San Francisco. He was a definitor (councillor) in the Irish Capuchin Province from 1973 to 1976. He was also spiritual director and retreat master at San Lorenzo Friary in Santa Inés. He died in Lompoc, Santa Barbara, California, on 29 October 2003. He was buried in the cemetery attached to San Lorenzo Seminary, Santa Inés, California.

Baptismal name: Leo Dominic Ward
Religious name: Fr. Sebastian Ward OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 8 Oct. 1919
Place of birth: 18 Sigurd Road, Stoneybatter, Dublin
Name of father: Nicholas Ward
Name of mother: Joanna (Jennie) Ward (née Moulton)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 3 Oct. 1939
Date of first profession: 4 Oct. 1940
Date of final profession: 4 Oct. 1943
Date of ordination (as priest):5 June 1947
Educational attainments: BA (1943)
Missionary activities: Travelled to the United States Mission on 9 Jan. 1948. He returned to Ireland on 31 Jan. 1971. He returned to the United States on 29 Sept. 1976.
Leadership positions: Provincial Definitor, 1973-6; Appointed Director of Theology Students, Raheny Capuchin Friary, Dublin, on 25 July 1972.
Date of death: 29 Oct. 2003
Place of death: San Lorenzo Seminary, Santa Inés, California
Place of burial: Cemetery, San Lorenzo Seminary, Santa Inés, California

Patrick Finbar Welstead was born in Cork on 3 September 1939, the son of John and Eileen Welstead (formerly Kidney). He was received into the Capuchin Franciscan Order on 3 October 1959 at Rochestown Friary in County Cork, where he took Flavian as his religious name. A year later (4 October 1960), he made his first profession. He studied philosophy at St. Bonaventure’s Friary and in University College Cork and took his theology courses at Ard Mhuire Capuchin Friary in County Donegal. On 21 May 1967 he was ordained at Ard Mhuire Friary Church. After his ordination, he was assigned to the Irish Capuchin Mission in Zambia, for the next four years. He served at several mission stations in this short period of time: Sioma, then Manganga and finally at St. Theresa’s Cathedral in Livingstone. In 1973 he was assigned to serve in the Irish Capuchin Vice-Province on the West Coast of the United States. He served in Hermiston, Oregan, for one year and was then assigned to St. Francis High School in La Cañada, Califonria, as a teacher, for one year. He would return to the high school again in the 1980s and 1990s as a teacher and Director of Development. Also, in this period, he served for three years at St. Joseph Parish in Roseburg, Oregon, and at St. Francis Parish in Bend, Oregon. He also served as an associate pastor at Our Lady of the Angels Parish in Burlingame, California, from 1986 to 1989. From 1991 to 2000 he was assigned to the provincial leadership house in Burlingame, California, where he served as the Development Director for the Western American Province. After a short sabbatical in the second half of 2002, he returned to Burlingame as associate pastor of Our Lady of the Angels Parish where he remained until his death at Peninsula Hospital in Burlingame on 4 December 2017. He was buried in the cemetery adjoining Mission Santa Inés, Solvang, California.

Baptismal name: Patrick Finbar Welstead
Religious name: Fr. Flavian Welstead OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 24 Sept. 1939
Place of birth: Douglas, Cork
Name of father: John Welstead
Name of mother: Ellen Welstead (née Kidney)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 3 Oct. 1959
Date of first profession: 4 Oct. 1960
Date of final profession: 4 Oct. 1963
Date of ordination (as priest): 21 May 1967
Missionary activities: Travelled to Livingstone, Zambia, in Nov. 1967. He returned to Ireland on 7 Apr. 1973. He travelled to the Western United States mission in 1973.
Date of death: 4 Dec. 2017
Place of death: Mills-Peninsula Medical Center, Burlingame, California
Place of burial: Cemetery, Mission Santa Inés, Solvang, California