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Timothy Heffernan was born on St. Patrick’s Day (17 March) in 1932 in Turner’s Cross in Cork. He joined the Capuchin Franciscans in October 1949 and took Enda as his religious name. He was ordained a priest in St. Eunan’s Cathedral in Letterkenny, County Donegal, on 30 May 1957. Soon after his ordination he travelled to the Western United States Mission. He was initially a parish priest in St. Mary’s Church in Ukiah, California. For many years, he was later a teacher and Dean at St. Francis High School in La Canada, California. In April 1979 he became the first Minister Provincial of the newly established Province of Our Lady of Angels in the Western United States. Following the completion of his term as Provincial Minister in 1985, he served as Novice Master in San Lorenzo Seminary in California. Later, he moved to San Bonaventura Friary in San Francisco where he took up the ministry of retreat director. He subsequently moved to St. Francis Friary in Burlingame. He suffered from ill-health in his final years, and he died on 24 April 2001. He was buried in the cemetery attached to San Lorenzo Seminary, Santa Inés, California.

Baptismal name: Timothy Heffernan
Religious name: Fr. Enda Heffernan OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 17 Mar. 1932
Place of birth: Cork
Name of father: John Heffernan
Name of mother: Margaret Heffernan (née Morey)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 3 Oct. 1949
Date of first profession: 4 Oct. 1950
Date of final profession: 5 Oct. 1953
Date of ordination (as priest): 30 May 1957
Educational attainments: BA (1953)
Missionary activities: Travelled to the United States Mission in 1958
Leadership positions: Appointed Vice Provincial, Western United States Mission on 28 Mar. 1977; Appointed Minister Provincial of the newly created Western United States Province on 18 Apr. 1979.
Date of death: 25 Apr. 2001
Place of death: San Lorenzo Seminary, Santa Inés, California
Place of burial: Cemetery, San Lorenzo Seminary, Santa Inés, California

Eugene Daly was born in Bantry in County Cork on 7 March 1918. He joined the Capuchin Franciscans in October 1939 and took Eltin as his religious name. He completed his BA and MA in University College Cork and was ordained to the priesthood in Ard Mhuire Capuchin Friary in County Donegal by Bishop William MacNeely on 27 May 1948. He obtained a Higher Diploma in Education at London University in 1949 and shortly afterwards set out for the mission in Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia). He took charge of the Teacher Training College in Lukulu for seven years. In 1956 he moved the western outpost at Sihole for a further six years (until 1962), where he advanced his mastery of the local Lozi language. For four years (1962-6) he was at Maramba near Livingstone. During this time he compiled an original translation of the liturgical texts into Lozi following the adoption of the vernacular (after the Second Vatican Council). And all the while he maintained a keen interest in catechetical matters. In 1966 Fr. Eltin left Africa and made his way to Oxford in England. He was appointed to run a chaplaincy service to Irish emigrants and travellers residing in Britain. He worked out of a house on Leopold Street in Oxford while involved in his ministry to Irish travellers and emigrants. He died in London on 12 November 2002 and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in North Kensington in the British capital.

Baptismal name: Eugene Daly
Religious name: Fr. Eltin Daly OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 7 Mar. 1918
Place of birth: Bantry, County Cork
Name of father: Daniel Daly (labourer, Scartbawn, Bantry, County Cork)
Name of mother: Mary Daly (née Mahony)
Date of Parents’ Marriage: 24 Feb. 1903
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): 27 May 1948
Educational attainments: BA (1st class hons.), 1943; MA (2nd class hons.), 1944; Higher Diploma in Education (London), 1949.
Missionary details: Travelled to Victoria Falls Mission, Zambia, on 22 August 1949. Returned to Ireland in 1966; Chaplain to Irish emigrants in England from 1966; National Director, Mission to the Travelling People, United Kingdom
Date of death: 12 Nov. 2002
Place of death: London (but resided in Oxford)
Place of burial: Kensal Green Cemetery, North Kensington, London

Baptismal name: Timothy Cooney
Religious name: Br. Eolan Cooney OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 14 Sept. 1913
Place of birth: Rylane, County Cork (Diocese of Cloyne)
Name of father: Timothy Cooney (Labourer)
Name of mother: Julia Cooney (née Rourke)
Date of parents’ marriage: 21 Sept. 1905
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 12 Nov. 1934
Date of first profession: 13 Nov. 1935
Date of final profession: 12 Nov. 1938
Date of death: 29 July 1999
Place of death: Nursing home, Mount Desert, Cork
Place of burial: Cemetery, Rochestown Capuchin Friary, County Cork

Baptismal name: John Burke
Religious name: Fr. Eustace Burke OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 24 Dec. 1914
Place of birth: Ballyhesty, Whitechurch, County Cork
Name of father: John Burke (Farmer)
Name of mother: Margaret Teresa Burke (née Murphy)
Date of parents’ marriage: 9 Feb. 1909
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 3 Oct. 1934
Date of first profession: 4 Oct. 1935
Date of final profession: 4 Oct. 1938
Date of ordination (as priest): 14 June 1942 (St. Eunan’s Cathedral, Letterkenny, County Donegal)
Educational attainments: BA (1938)
Missionary activities: Travelled to the Prefecture of Victoria Falls, Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia) in November 1942. He was initially stationed in the Sichilli mission in Barotseland, but a serious illness necessitated his transfer to Livingstone where he ministered until August 1947. He was then transferred to South Africa and was appointed pastor of St. Mary of the Angels, Athlone, Cape Town.
Date of death: 2 Oct. 1949
Place of death: St. Joseph’s Sanatorium, Pinelands, Cape Town, South Africa
Place of burial: Maitland Cemetery, Cape Town, South Africa

Daniel O’Reilly was born in Castlepollard, a small village in north County Westmeath on 22 November 1831. He was born into a reasonably affluent farming family, and he was sent to St. Patrick’s College in Carlow for his education where he excelled in classical studies. Having decided to join the Capuchin Franciscans, he was sent to Belgium for his novitiate studies in about 1850. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1855 and soon afterwards returned to Ireland. Most of his life in ministry was spent in Church Street in Dublin where he devoted his energies to financing the construction of St. Mary of the Angels (built between 1868 and 1881) on the site of an earlier Capuchin chapel. He served as guardian (local superior) of the Church Street community from 1864 to 1866. In 1873 he was appointed Custos (superior) of the Capuchin foundations in Dublin and in Kilkenny which remained subject to the supervision of the Provincial Minister of the Capuchins in Paris. Fr. O’Reilly preached at the opening of the Irish Capuchin novitiate in Kilkenny in October 1875. The original pulpit in St. Mary of the Angels (unveiled on 25 December 1883) was presented to him as a token of esteem by several wealthy benefactors. His work in rebuilding the Irish Capuchins was recognised when was he was afforded the title of Provincial Minister several years before the Irish Province was canonically restored in 1885. He died (of dropsy or edema) on 3 September 1894 in the Church Street Friary and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Baptismal name: Daniel O’Reilly
Religious name: Fr. Daniel Patrick O’Reilly OSFC
Date of birth: 22 Nov. 1831
Place of birth: Castlepollard, County Westmeath
Date of ordination (as priest): 1855
Date of death: 3 Sept. 1894
Place of death: Church Street, Dublin
Place of burial: Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin

Donal O’Mahony was born on 2 August 1936 in Blackrock, Cork, the son of Jeremiah O’Mahony and his wife Ellen (née Walsh). He was educated at Rochestown College, and then trained as a sports journalist with the ‘Irish Independent’ for three years. Finding he had a vocation for the priesthood, he was received into the Capuchin Franciscan Order on 8 November 1958, and trained at Ard Mhuire Capuchin Friary at Cashelmore, Creeslough, in County Donegal. He took Augustine as his religious name and was ordained on 1 June 1966 at St. Eunan’s Cathedral in Letterkenny, County Donegal.

Based at the Capuchin Friary on Church Street in Dublin, he was from the beginning prepared to confront sensitive topics, arguing in the 1967 edition of ‘The Capuchin Annual’ that contemporary Marian devotional practices were not undermined by the promotion of ecumenism and an emphasis on liturgical worship emanating from the Second Vatican Council. As editor from January 1967 of the monthly ‘Father Mathew Record’, he modernised the magazine’s design and layout (undertaken by illustrator Richard King), included his own photography, commissioned articles on contemporary secular culture (including from Micheál MacLiammóir), and highlighted the issues of poverty and deprivation in Ireland and abroad. From January 1968, he renamed the publication ‘Eirigh: A Magazine of Christian Optimism’, and co-opted lay editorial and managerial staff. Its editorial policy sought to ‘communicate the Christian message to a modern family readership in the light of our inherited spiritual, national, and cultural traditions’, urged the promotion of breastfeeding in the developing world, and stressed how social improvements based on economic development were resulting in resource depletion and ecological debasement. Within a year circulation had increased by 11,600; however, the magazine was distributed principally via mail and rising postal rates caused it to cease publication in December 1973. The last issue was devoted to unequal distribution of wealth within and between countries.

O’Mahony also wrote as a columnist with the weekly ‘Women’s View’ (December 1967 to September 1970), drawing on the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi when expounding on the role of women in the church, and on other issues such as student protest, just war and animal rights. Based at the Capuchin Friary in Kilkenny in the early to mid-1970s, he became involved with the local branch of Pax Christi (an international Catholic peace and reconciliation organisation based in the Netherlands), and organised peace concerts, talks and walks. He was active in European peace forums, religious and secular, seeking to defuse cold war tensions and mitigate religious repression in various Warsaw Pact states. In January 1975 he was appointed national chaplain of Pax Christi in Ireland and later joined the international board.

When Dr Tiede Herrema, the Dutch managing director of the Ferenka plant in Limerick, was kidnapped on 3 October 1975 by Eddie Gallagher and Marion Coyle of the Provisional IRA, Cardinal Bernard Alfrink, Archbishop of Utrecht and international president of Pax Christi, suggested O’Mahony as a suitable intermediary to negotiate with Herrema’s captors. On 9 October, O’Mahony, under Garda special branch surveillance, secretly received a tape from the kidnappers. Believing his moral responsibility allowed him to maintain confidentiality in contacts with the kidnappers, he offered to switch places with the married Herrema, visited the family of Gallagher in Ballybofey, and consulted a psychologist to better understand his interlocutors. Perceived as unwilling to criticise the government by the kidnappers, O’Mahony was replaced as intermediary by Philip Flynn – deputy secretary general of the Local Government and Public Services Union and a member of Provisional Sinn Féin – although he remained involved in the background. Herrema, released unharmed on 7 November, remained grateful for O’Mahony’s efforts on his behalf, and led a Pax Christi Ireland fundraising campaign in 1977.

In 1974 O’Mahony was entrusted with the ‘flat-dwellers apostolate’ by the Dublin Archdiocese; this involved administering the eucharist to flat-dwellers who had difficulties in going to church. Harrowed by the urban poverty he witnessed, he established an exploratory working group in 1976 to address housing deprivation, which evolved into the organisation Threshold, founded on 3 April 1978. A research-driven advocacy group lobbying for improved public and private housing conditions, on 19 August 1979 Threshold became a limited company with professional administration, providing training to volunteer advisors in conjunction with the Irish Management Institute, and advocating enhanced legislation and regulation to address the chronic shortage of quality accommodation. O’Mahony, as Threshold’s executive director, publicised the abject housing conditions endured by many and urged improved legislative and regulatory protection. The organisation concentrated on assisting private tenants to secure their legal rights and ameliorating the effects of homelessness, poverty, and deprivation, helping almost 3,000 people in its first two years. O’Mahony drew on his extensive international contacts as principal organiser of the Pax Christi International Council (Dublin) and the attendant peace conference (Derry) in April 1977. From the late 1970s, he regularly participated in seminars at the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, in County Wicklow, and contributed to ecumenical reconciliation forums that facilitated the establishment of what became the New Ireland Movement. Urging the recognition of the humanity of all those in any conflict, O’Mahony frequently participated in ecumenical and secular protests promoting peace and sustainable living in Ireland and around the world.

In March 1983 Archbishop Dermot Ryan invited the Capuchins to administer the parish of St. Michan’s and St Paul’s in the Halston Street and Arran Quay areas. O’Mahony was formally appointed as parish priest at a service in the Capuchin Friary Church of St. Mary of the Angels, Church Street, on 10 April 1983, and ministered in the parish until 1987. An internationally respected mediator and negotiator, he was called upon, both publicly and privately, to defuse hostage-takings in Honduras, Italy and elsewhere throughout the 1980s, as well as facilitating inter-faith cross-community workshops in Lebanon. Posted to the General Curia of the Capuchin Franciscan Order in Rome (1987-9), in 1990 he was briefly chaplain to Coolmine Community School in Blanchardstown in County Dublin, before returning to Rome to take charge of the Order’s justice, peace and ecology office (1991-4). Visiting ninety-four countries over seven years, he participated in several UN summits on issues such as environmental protection and development (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), a UN habitat conference (Istanbul, 1996), and a UN forum on sustainable development (Johannesburg, 2002). He was also a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. The ‘American Franciscan Journal’ awarded him their Franciscan person of the year. From the late 1990s, he ministered at Holy Trinity Friary on Father Mathew Quay in Cork, and was instrumental in establishing Integrate Cork, an anti-racism group (2000).

He travelled to Pretoria in South Africa in 2001 and was appointed guardian (local superior) of the Capuchin Friary there. He served as justice, peace, and ecology coordinator for the East African Capuchin Conference. With the justice and peace department of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, he established the Damietta Peace Initiative in 2004 to promote peace and non-violence throughout Africa. Inspired by St. Francis of Assisi’s mediation between Christians and Muslims in the Egyptian port city of Damietta (c.1219), this multi-ethnic, multi-faith community development and mediation initiative sought to engage grassroots activists across the continent. For his work in expanding the initiative throughout Africa, in 2008 O’Mahony received the peace award of the Interfaith Foundation of South Africa. Early in 2009 O’Mahony was diagnosed with cancer and returned to Ireland for treatment. He died on 14 August 2010 at Marymount Hospice in Cork. He was buried in the cemetery attached to the Capuchin Friary in Rochestown, County Cork.

Baptismal name: Donal O’Mahony
Religious name: Fr. Donal O’Mahony OFM Cap. (previously Fr. Augustine O’Mahony OFM Cap., he reverted to his baptismal name after the Second Vatican Council)
Date of birth: 2 Aug. 1936
Place of birth: Blackrock, Cork
Name of father: Jeremiah O’Mahony
Name of mother: Ellen Walsh
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 8 Nov. 1958
Date of first profession: 16 Nov. 1959
Date of final profession: 16 Nov. 1962
Date of ordination (as priest): 1 June 1966 (St. Eunan’s Cathedral, Letterkenny, County Donegal)
Missionary activity: Travelled to South Africa in 2001; returned in 2010
Date of death: 14 Aug. 2010
Place of death: Marymount Hospice, Cork
Place of burial: Cemetery, Capuchin Friary, Rochestown, County Cork

John McNamara was born in Glin, County Limerick, on 10 September 1931. He was baptised in the Immaculate Conception Parish Church in Glin in the Diocese of Limerick. He attended the national school in Glin after which he received his secondary education at Rochestown College in County Cork. He was admitted to the Capuchin novitiate in Rochestown on 3 October 1950. Following his temporary profession in Rochestown a year later, he was transferred to St. Bonaventure’s Friary in Cork from where he attended University College Cork for three years, after which he was conferred with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He made his perpetual profession in St. Bonaventure’s on 4 October 1954 and then made his way to Ard Mhuire Friary in Donegal for theological studies. He was ordained to the priesthood by William McNeely, Bishop of Raphoe, in St. Eunan’s Cathedral in Letterkenny on 15 May 1958. Later that year, he commenced Canon Law studies in Rome and obtained a Licentiate in 1960. On 17 August 1960, Fr. Donatus departed for the Irish Capuchin mission in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). He first served as assistant pastor in St Therese’s and in Maramba, both in the Livingstone Diocese, from 1960 to 1963. He then went on to teach seminarians in St. John’s in Mongu, in Limulunga and in Nalionwa (Kalabo) from 1964 to 1978. He was rector of the school at Limulunga from 1965 to 1978. He returned to Ireland in 1978, when he became a member of the staff at Rochestown College, teaching there for the next ten years. In 1988 he was appointed Mission Secretary and worked out of the mission office at the Church Street Friary in Dublin. In 1998, he returned to Zambia. He was posted to Malengwa Friary in Mongu, the capital of the Western Province in Zambia, and was appointed chaplain to Mongu Teacher Training College. After a two-year stay (2008-10), in St. Pio Friary, Fr. Donatus was transferred to the recently built Capuchin novitiate at the Camerino Friary in Lusaka, where he lived until his death on 5 July 2021. He was buried in the cemetery attached to the Camerino Friary.

Baptismal name: John McNamara
Religious name: Fr. Donatus McNamara OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 10 Sept. 1931
Place of birth: Glin, County Limerick
Name of father: Thomas McNamara
Name of mother: Brigid McNamara (née Egan)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 3 Oct. 1950
Date of first profession: 4 Oct. 1951
Date of final profession: 4 Oct. 1954
Date of ordination (as priest): 15 May 1958
Educational attainments: BA, 2nd class hons. (1954); Licentiate in Canon Law, Rome (1960)
Missionary activities: Travelled to Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia), on 17 Aug. 1960. He returned to Ireland on 10 Aug. 1976. He returned to Zambia in Sept. 1998.
Date of death: 5 July 2021
Place of death: St. Clare’s Hospital, Makeni, Lusaka, Zambia
Place of burial: Cemetery, Capuchin Novitiate, Camerino Friary, Lusaka, Zambia

Denis Corkery was born in Ballyvourney in County Cork on 6 April 1914. He received his early education in Ballyvourney National School and subsequently, attended Rochestown Seraphic College (1929-32) in County Cork. He was received into the Capuchin Order in October 1932 and took Fiacre as his religious name. He made his solemn profession on 4 October 1936 and was ordained to the priesthood on 14 June 1942. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts from University College Cork (UCC) in 1936 and graduated with a Master of Arts in 1937. Four years of theological studies followed in Ard Mhuire Friary in County Donegal, after which he returned to UCC to obtain a Doctorate in Philosophy in 1944. He then went to the International Capuchin College in Rome and studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University where he received a Licentiate of Sacred Theology (STL) in 1947. On his return to Ireland, he was appointed a lector in theology in Ard Mhuire. He spent three years in the Church Street community in Dublin from 1958 to 1961 after which he was transferred to the Capuchin house in Raheny where he spent the remainder of his life. During this time, he was engaged in pastoral work giving retreats and missions (especially retreats to religious), hearing confessions, preaching and general friary duty. Fluent in both Irish and French, he contributed several articles to various publications and was a frequent contributor to ‘The Father Mathew Record’ (later ‘Eirigh’). He died in Raheny on 15 November 1997 and was buried in the Capuchin plot in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Baptismal name: Denis Corkery
Religious name: Fr. Fiacre Corkery OFM Cap. (he reverted to his baptismal following the Second Vatican Council)
Date of birth: 6 Apr. 1914
Place of birth: Toonlane, Ballyvourney, County Cork (Diocese of Cloyne)
Name of father: John Corkery (Farmer)
Name of mother: Brigid Corkery (née Vaughan)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 3 Oct. 1932
Date of first profession: 4 Oct. 1933
Date of final profession: 4 Oct. 1936
Date of ordination (as priest): 14 June 1942
Educational attainments: BA, 1st class hons. (1936); MA, NUI (1937); PhD (1944); Licentiate of Sacred Theology (STL), Rome (1947)
Date of death: 15 Nov. 1997
Place of death: Raheny, County Dublin
Place of burial: Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin

Baptismal name: James Rice
Religious name: Fr. Canice Rice OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 26 May 1870
Place of birth: James Street, Kilkenny (Diocese of Ossory)
Name of father: William Rice (Police Constable)
Name of mother: Jane Rice (née Kennedy)
Date of death: 23 Feb. 1896
Place of death: Church Street, Dublin

Baptismal name: James Ruth
Religious name: Fr. Carthage Ruth OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 6 Mar. 1923
Place of birth: Enniscorthy, County Wexford (Diocese of Ferns)
Name of father: William Ruth
Name of mother: Margaret Ruth (née Dobbs)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 3 Oct. 1941
Date of first profession: 4 Oct. 1942
Date of final profession: 4 Oct. 1945
Date of ordination (as priest): 16 June 1949
Educational attainments: BA (1945)
Missionary activities: Travelled to the Prefecture of Victoria Falls, Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia), in February 1950. Later, he undertook missionary work in the Archdiocese of Cape Town in South Africa. Returned to Ireland in 1971.
Date of death: 26 Dec. 2010
Place of death: Bon Secours convalescence home, Mount Desert, Cork
Place of burial: Cemetery, Rochestown Capuchin Friary, County Cork