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Edward Bourke was born in Kilkenny city on 27 February 1890. He studied at the Seraphic College in Rochestown, County Cork, and joined the Capuchin Franciscan Order in 1906 taking Canice as his religious name. He was ordained to the priesthood in August 1906. He earned a BA degree from University College Cork in 1911. He was appointed guardian (local superior) of Holy Trinity Friary in Cork in 1933. He also served as superior of St. Bonaventure’s Hostel in Cork in 1946 and was instrumental in establishing the Capuchin House of Studies in Raheny in Dublin in the late 1940s. He was elected Provincial Definitor (Councillor) on several occasions. He returned to his native Kilkenny in 1959. Fr. Canice spent much of his ministry giving missions and retreats and was well known for his effective and energetic preaching. For many years, he served as Commissary Provincial of the Third Order of St. Francis confraternity. A fluent Irish speaker, he was also the author of several devotional texts including ‘Mary / A study of the Mother of God’ (1936), ‘Humility / the foundation of spiritual life’ (1951), and ‘Mary’s Rosary / Its devout recital’ (1960). He died in Dublin on 2 October 1969 and was buried on the Feast of St. Francis (4 October) in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Baptismal name: Edward Bourke
Religious name: Fr. Canice Bourke OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 27 Feb. 1890
Place of birth: High Street, Kilkenny (Diocese of Ossory)
Name of father: James Bourke (Draper)
Name of mother: Catherine Walsh
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 26 Aug. 1906
Date of first profession: 17 Sept. 1907
Date of final profession: 21 Jan. 1912
Date of ordination (as priest): 5 July 1914
Educational attainments: BA (NUI), 1911
Leadership positions: Provincial Definitor: 1928-31, 1937-41, 1943-6, 1946-9, 1949-51, 1952-5; Custos General: 1940-3, 1955-8.
Date of death: 2 Oct. 1969
Place of death: St. Michael’s Hospital, Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin
Place of burial: Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin

Patrick J. Maher was born on North Brunswick Street, opposite, what was then, the Richmond Hospital in Dublin on 9 June 1835. His family’s property extended to North King Street and possibly included the site (No. 49) on which a former Capuchin House stood. He was baptized and made his first communion (8 September 1848) in the old Church Street chapel where he served Mass for Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC from whom he took the total abstinence pledge. In 1851 he entered the Capuchin novitiate, taking the name Columbus, at Frascati near Rome, and made his solemn profession the following year. He then studied philosophy at Florence and theology at Sienna after which he was granted patents for preaching in 1855. The following year he received subdiaconate in Rome. Too young to be ordained, he spent some months with the Capuchin community in Pantasaph, Wales, until he returned briefly to Ireland to receive a diaconate from Cardinal Paul Cullen at Maynooth on 5 June 1857. The following year, at the age of twenty-three, he was ordained a priest in Liverpool with a dispensation of thirteen months from the Holy See. At the time it was noted that he was the first Capuchin priest to be ordained in England since the Reformation. At the Provincial Chapter in 1859 he was appointed guardian in Kilkenny where he served two terms and was in demand as a confessor and preacher until he was sent to Rome as a novice master. While there he was asked to go to Ancona to minister to about 800 men of the Irish Brigade who were on their way to defend Pope Pius IX.

Having returned to Ireland, he spent some time in Cork and again in Kilkenny until he moved to Dublin. Here, in 1880, he identified himself with the Temperance League and from then on, his whole life and energy were devoted to a crusade against the abuses of intoxicating drink. He became Vice-President of the Father Mathew Total Abstinence Society of the Sacred Thirst founded by his fellow Capuchin Fr. Albert Mitchell OSFC (1831-1893). When Fr. Albert left for missionary work in Australia in 1883, Fr. Columbus became President and undertook the herculean task of resuscitating the total abstinence movement, which had been declining ever since Fr. Mathew’s death. Gradually, as a result of his untiring efforts, Fr. Columbus made total abstinence popular, honoured and respected in Dublin. He succeeded in constantly enlisting individuals rather than enrolling large numbers at a time. Eventually, the old Temperance Hall at 3 Halston Street proved inadequate to meet the demands upon its space. With the centenary of the birth of Fr. Mathew approaching (1890), Fr. Columbus decided to perpetuate his hero’s memory by building a Memorial Hall on Church Street and by erecting a statue in Dublin. All classes and creeds contributed to collections made throughout the city, the country, and abroad. A committee presided over by the Lord Mayor met regularly in the Oak Room of the Mansion House, Fr. Columbus being one of its most attentive members. A competition for a suitable design for a statue was won by Mary Redmond (1863-1930). It would be eight feet tall, sculptured in light grey Sicilian marble and standing on a pedestal of limestone fourteen feet high.

On 30 October 1890, a procession of 50,000 made its way from St. Stephen's Green to O’Connell Street for the laying of the top stone of the pedestal. All the city trades turned out with bands and banners; and the various temperance societies and sodalities, the League of the Cross and other bodies were fully represented. On the platform there was a representative group of clergy, merchants, and other citizens of all denominations. Among them were sixty-five total abstainers who had taken the pledge from Fr. Mathew himself in 1840. It was a proud moment for Fr. Columbus when he was given the silver trowel, now preserved in the Irish Capuchin Archives, used by the Lord Mayor to lay the top stone of the pedestal. Three years later the statue itself was put in place.

Although the Memorial Hall’s foundation stone was blessed and laid in the centenary year, it took twelve months to build. Then on 25 January 1891 it was opened by Archbishop William Walsh who had been a supporter of Fr. Columbus from the outset. Before extensions were added (1904) the main auditorium was 73 feet in length and 39 feet wide and there was a gallery on three sides. Altogether there was accommodation for between 800 and 900 people. In addition to the main hall there was a coffee bar, a billiard room and reading rooms. Among the large representative group attending the opening were the Lord Mayor, the Sheriff, William Conyngham Plunket, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, and the Irish nationalist politician John Redmond who regretted that Dublin was the worst city for drunkenness that he had ever visited. The Temperance League now moved from Halston Street to their new Memorial Hall on Church Street. A monthly meeting was also held in the nearby Church of St. Mary of the Angels, but after only two years it was necessary to hold two meetings – one for men and another for women. Indefatigably, Fr. Columbus presided over the thousands striving for sobriety.

Fr. Columbus Maher OSFC died suddenly of a suspected heart attack on the morning of 10 September 1894 in the Capuchin Friary on Church Street, Dublin. He was 59 years old. At his funeral Mass Fr. Matthew O’Connor OSFC, Provincial Minister, stated that the Capuchin community had been deprived of an exemplary member, Church Street of a devoted confessor and preacher, the Temperance League of its protector and the City of Dublin of a public benefactor. The universal esteem in which he had been held was clear from the long file of mourning carriages and the estimated 6,000 people who attended his funeral in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Peadar Ó Laoghaire (Peter O’Leary) was born in Lios Carragáin near Macroom in County Cork on 30 April 1839. Born into a bilingual family, he was educated at St. Colman’s College in Fermoy before entering the seminary at St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, County Kildare. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1867. He went on to serve in several parishes in the diocese of Cloyne, spending his final thirty years (from 1891) as parish priest of Castlelyons (Caisleán Ó Liatháin) in County Cork. From 1906 he was officially titled Canon Peter O’Leary, but he was more commonly addressed as ‘an tAthair Peadar’ (or ‘Father Peter’). Although he did not begin writing in earnest until he was in his fifties, the foundation of Conradh na Gaeilge (1893) spurred him on to take up a career as a writer. He was particularly eager to compile accessible Irish language reading material, especially for a younger generation. O’Leary completed nearly five hundred pieces of work including essays, stories, and translations of The Bible and ‘Don Quixote’, in addition to modernisations of early and medieval Irish texts. His best-known works are ‘Séadna’ (1904) and ‘Mo scéal féin’ (1915). ‘Séadna’, a folk tale, is considered a seminal work in the Gaelic revival, epitomizing O’Leary’s championing of ‘caint na ndaoine’ or the language of the people. His pioneering autobiographical work, ‘Mo Sgéal Féin’, was published by the Irish Book Company, founded by Norma Borthwick and Mairéad Ní Raghallaigh, with whom he was closely associated. O’Leary’s contribution to Irish language literature saw him honoured as a freeman of both Dublin and Cork, with Cork Corporation referring to him as ‘the greatest Irish writer of his age’ when granting him the freedom of the city in 1912. O’Leary died in Castlelyons, County Cork, on 21 March 1920 and was buried in the local cemetery.

Patrick O’Callaghan was born in Cork on 8 December 1880. He joined the Capuchin Franciscans in September 1898 and took Brendan as his religious name. He was ordained on 16 March 1907. In late 1913 he was transferred to the newly established mission custody in the Western United States. He was initially assigned as assistant pastor to St. Francis Parish in Bend, Oregon. After just one year in ministry there he was transferred to Hermiston, Oregon, to assist Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. and Fr. Malachy Hynes OFM Cap. At the time, the Irish friars were investigating the prospects of a new location somewhere on the east coast. A friary there would serve as a midway point for the arduous journey from Ireland to the American Pacific Coast. Fr. Brendan was appointed to find a location for this new foundation. At the invitation of Archbishop Michael Joseph Curley (1879-1947), Fr. Brendan and Fr. Fabian Reynolds OFM Cap. arrived to work in the Immaculate Conception Parish in Towson, Maryland. There stay there was short, however, as problems arose with the Pittsburgh Capuchin Province over jurisdiction. Finally, it was discovered that Delaware was not included in any Capuchin Provincial jurisdiction and a location was chosen in Wilmington. Fr. Brendan was appointed the first guardian (local superior) of the new foundation (St. Patrick’s Friary). In 1935, a novitiate was established in Wilmington. Fr. Brendan returned to Ireland in 1937. He spent his remaining years as a member of the Holy Trinity Capuchin community in Cork city. He died on 10 June 1952 and was buried in the cemetery adjoining Rochestown Capuchin Friary in County Cork.

Baptismal name: Patrick O’Callaghan
Religious name: Fr. Brendan O’Callaghan OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 8 Dec. 1880
Place of birth: Cork
Name of father: William O’Callaghan
Name of mother: Catherine O’Callaghan (née O’Brien)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 17 Sept. 1898
Date of first profession: 17 Sept. 1899
Date of final profession: 25 Sept. 1904
Date of ordination (as priest): 16 Mar. 1907
Educational attainments: BA (RUI), 1904
Missionary activities: Travelled to the United States mission in Nov. 1913. He returned to Ireland in 1937.
Leadership positions: Custos General, 1946-9
Date of death: 10 June 1952
Place of death: Cork
Place of burial: Cemetery, Rochestown Capuchin Friary, Cork

Henry Edward George Rope was a writer, poet, editor, and priest widely known in the Catholic Church for his traditionalist views. He was the elder brother of Margaret Agnes Rope, a stained-glass artist, a nephew of Ellen Mary Rope, a sculptor, and George Thomas Rope, a painter, and naturalist, as well as a cousin of M.E. Aldrich Rope, another stained-glass artist. He was ordained at St. John Lateran in Rome on 27 February 1915. He served in the Shrewsbury Diocese up until 1937, in which year, on 30 October, he took up the position of archivist in the Venerable English College in Rome. His positions as a priest included Chester St Werburgh 1915-17, Crewe 1917-18, Plowden, Shropshire 1918-24, Market Drayton 1924-25, and chaplain at Mawley Hall (near Cleobury Mortimer) 1925-37. His tenure in Rome was interrupted by the Second World War, during which he served as a chaplain at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Albrighton Hall, Shrewsbury (1940-44). He re-joined the Venerable English College and on his return to Rome after the war in 1946, again served as archivist, until December 1957. Returning to England, he settled at the Carmelite Monastery, Quidenham, Norfolk, where his sister Margaret Agnes Rope, the stained-glass artist, had died some four years previously. Due to his writings and his work as archivist at the Venerable English College in Rome, he was well known in his lifetime, particularly within church circles. He nurtured friendships with many prominent lay Catholics and clergy which in turn generated a wealth of correspondence. Aside from Benedict Williamson (1868-1948), a church architect and later Catholic priest, on whom he wrote a two-part monograph, Rope is associated with G.K. Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, John Hawes, and many others. Henry Rope died in London on 1 March 1978 and was buried in the graveyard attached to the Church of St. Michael and the Holy Family in Kesgrave, Suffolk.

Richard Henebry (Risteard de Hindeberg) was born on 18 September 1863 in Portlaw, County Waterford, the fourth of six children of Pierce Henebry, a farmer, and Ellen Henebry (née Cashen) of Clogheen in County Tipperary. At the age of twenty-one, Richard Henebry entered St. John’s College in Waterford to study for the priesthood, where Canon Patrick Power (1862-1951) was among his contemporaries. He subsequently won a scholarship to finish his studies in St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth. He graduated from All Hallows College in Dublin in 1892. Henebry briefly served on the English mission before he was offered the inaugural Chair of Celtic Studies at the Catholic University in Washington in 1895. The Ancient Order of Hibernians, an Irish American Catholic organization, had funded the chair and Henebry was proposed by classmates Canon Patrick Augustine Sheehan and Fr. Michael Hickey for the appointment. To fully prepare for his role Henebry was given special leave to go to Germany to study, again with effective lobbying on his behalf by Hickey and Sheehan. He studied for his doctoral degree in Celtic philology in Freiburg and Greifswald with the acclaimed celticists Rudolf Thurneysen and Heinrich Zimmer.

Henebry took up his appointment at the Catholic University in Washington in 1898 only to be relieved of his duties within two years. Though he was suffering from ill-health, Henebry had also seemingly fallen out with his colleagues and superiors in Washington. A diagnosis of tuberculosis forced him to spend a year recuperating in a sanatorium in Denver, Colorado. While in America, he edited and translated a large part of the life of Colum Cille by Manus Ó Donnell which he published in ‘Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie’ (1901-05). Following his return to Ireland, Henebry taught Irish in a variety of places in the Waterford area, notably during the summers from 1906 at Ring College (Coláiste na Rinne), which he had helped establish in 1905. Various diocesan appointments followed within Waterford and Lismore, before he put his name forward for the Chair of Irish Language and Literature at University College Cork (UCC) in 1909, again an inaugural position.

Henebry remained at UCC until his death in 1916, but it was not a wholly successful appointment. His efforts to embed his model of Irish language teaching in the university were met with resistance, from students and others. His efforts to establish an archive of Irish traditional music were also thwarted, and his continuing ill-health compromised his own ability to achieve these objectives. During his lifetime, Henebry was recognized as a leading linguist, and his works on the Déise dialect of Irish were widely acclaimed in academic circles. Pedagogically (and perhaps culturally) an enduring part of his legacy was his role as a teacher at, and supporter of, Coláiste na Rinne, in the Waterford Gaeltacht. In addition to his language instruction, Henebry also taught Irish traditional music to any students who were interested. He also relished his role as a contributor to various papers and periodicals, however the longest of his musical works published during his lifetime was a booklet, ‘Irish Music: Being an Examination of the Matter of Scales, Modes and Keys with Practical Instructions and Examples for Players’ (1903). Henebry died on 17 March 1916 in Portlaw, County Waterford, and was buried in Carrickbeg near Carrick-on-Suir. Henebry’s analytical monograph, ‘A Handbook of Irish Music’ (1928), published by University College Cork, appeared posthumously, and was edited by Professor Tadhg Ó Donnchadha (1874-1949), his successor in the Department of Irish in UCC.

Patrick Mulligan, the son of John Mulligan and Brigid Mulligan (née Brennan), was born in County Monaghan on 12 March 1875. His family had a long association with the Capuchin Franciscan Order as five of his maternal uncles were among the first to join the Capuchins after the return of the friars to England in 1850. Following the completion of his preliminary studies at the Seraphic College in Rochestown, County Cork, Patrick Mulligan was received into the Capuchin Order on 30 March 1892. Upon joining the Order, he took Sylvester as his religious name. He was ordained a priest in Dublin on 21 September 1901. He was one of the first friars of the Irish Capuchin Province to pursue a course a higher course in theology in a continental university. Soon after his ordination, he enrolled in the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium where he was awarded a degree of Doctor of Divinity (‘Doctor Divinitatis’). On his return to Ireland, he was appointed a lector in sacred theology in Rochestown. In 1913 he was appointed director of the Total Abstinence sodality on Church Street in Dublin and President of Father Mathew Hall. He also assumed the editorship of ‘The Father Mathew Record’ periodical. In 1919 he resumed his role as professor of theology in Rochestown. Fr. Sylvester held several senior administrative positions in the Irish Capuchin Province. He was first elected Definitor at the chapter held in 1907 and was re-elected to this position at subsequent chapters. In 1925 he was elected Provincial Minister. The following year he attended the General Chapter of the Capuchin Order in Rome and was elected Definitor General, the first member of the Irish Province to hold such office. He was re-elected at the next General Chapter held in 1932. On 13 April 1937 he was appointed Archbishop of Delhi and Simla in India, receiving his episcopal consecration (23 May 1937) from Cardinal Pietro Fumasoni Biondi, assisted by Patriarch Luca Ermenegildo Pasetto OFM Cap., and Bishop Giovanni Giuseppe Santini OFM Cap. At the time, there was only one Catholic priest in Delhi and the newly appointed Archbishop was forced to reside in a house attached to a school located on the grounds of the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Joseph. Despite the disruption caused by the Second World War, Archbishop Mulligan worked assiduously in a challenging missionary environment. After being taken seriously ill during a Holy Year pilgrimage to Rome in June 1950, he returned to Ireland and underwent an operation in Dublin. Continuing ill-health forced his resignation as Archbishop on 12 August 1950. He died in Dublin on 23 October 1950. He was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Baptismal name: Patrick Mulligan
Religious name: Fr. Sylvester Mulligan OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 12 Mar. 1875
Place of birth: Tasson, Clontibret, County Monaghan (Diocese of Clogher)
Name of father: John Mulligan
Name of mother: Brigid Mulligan (née Brennan)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 30 Mar. 1892
Date of first profession: 2 Apr. 1893
Date of final profession: 25 Dec. 1897
Date of ordination (as priest): 21 Sept. 1901
Educational attainments: Licentiate of Sacred Theology (STL), Louvain; Doctor of Divinity (DD), Louvain
Missionary activities/Leadership positions: Provincial Definitor: 1907-10, 1916-9, 1922-5; Provincial Minister, 1925; Definitor General, 1926-9, 1932-7; Consecrated Archbishop of Delhi and Simla (India) on 23 May 1937. Resigned on 12 Aug. 1950.
Date of death: 23 Oct. 1950
Place of death: Dublin
Place of burial: Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin

Francis Cantillon was born near the village of Glounthaune in County Cork on 20 June 1880. He attended the local diocesan seminary for several years, but after some discernment entered the Capuchin novitiate in September 1899. Having completed his philosophical and theological studies, he was ordained on 16 March 1907. In 1910 he was appointed guardian (local superior) of the Capuchin friary in Kilkenny. Following the completion of his term as guardian, he engaged in the ministry of preaching missions and retreats throughout Ireland. He was transferred to the United States in 1926 and took up residence in Mendocino County in California. Later that year he assisted Fr. Thomas Dowling OFM Cap. in ministering in Visitation Valley near San Francisco. This assignment was a temporary one as within a few months the Irish friars were given the administration of the new parish of Our Lady of Angels in Burlingame, California. They resided there in a small house on Cortez Avenue. In 1931 Fr. Berchmans was appointed Pastor of Our Lady of Angels parish in Ukiah, a position he filled until 1937 when he took up the position of pastor of the church of St. Francis of Assisi in Bend, Oregon. His health began to decline in subsequent years, and he retired from active ministry in 1940. He moved to Los Angeles and died there on 12 March 1942. He was laid to rest in the Capuchin plot in Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Baptismal name: Francis Cantillon
Religious name: Fr. Berchmans Cantillon OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 20 June 1880
Place of birth: Rockfarm, Glounthaune, County Cork
Name of father: Denis Cantillon
Name of mother: Mary Ellen Cantillon (née Mahony)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 8 Sept. 1899
Date of first profession: 8 Sept. 1900
Date of final profession: 25 Sept. 1904
Date of ordination (as priest): 16 Mar. 1907
Educational attainments: BA (RUI)
Missionary assignments: Travelled to Los Angeles, California, in 1926
Date of Death: 12 March 1942
Place of death: Queen of Angels Hospital, Los Angeles, California, United States
Place of burial: Calvary Cemetery, Los Angeles, California, United States

Vincent Flynn, the son of William Flynn and Mary Anne Flynn (née Collins), was born in County Donegal on 27 May 1905. He joined the Capuchin Order in October 1922 and took Killian as his religious name. He was ordained a priest in June 1930 and travelled as a missionary friar to Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia) in September 1931. He held the position of superior of the Irish Capuchin mission in Northern Rhodesia throughout most of the 1930s. He was appointed the first Prefect Apostolic of Victoria Falls (Livingstone) in 1936, a position he would hold for fifteen years. He became General Secretary for Education in Northern Rhodesia and established the Catholic Secretariat for the Bishops in 1951. He was awarded an MBE by the British monarchy for his services to African education in 1958. In 1961 bishops from Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and Zambia appointed Flynn the first Secretary General of the newly established Association of Members of the Episcopal Conference of Eastern Africa (AMECEA) in Nairobi, Kenya, a post he would hold until his death. He was the principal organizer for the historic visit of Pope Paul VI to Uganda in 1969 for which he received the ‘Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice’ award. Later, he acted as the principal contact for the AMECEA bishops at the Second Vatican Council (1962-5). Following a short illness, he died in Dublin on 3 December 1972. He was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Baptismal name: Vincent Flynn
Religious name: Killian
Date of birth: 27 May 1905
Place of birth: Killybegs, County Donegal (Diocese of Raphoe)
Name of father: William Flynn
Name of mother: Mary Anne Flynn (née Collins)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 15 Oct. 1922
Date of first profession: 19 Oct. 1923
Date of final profession: 19 Oct. 1926
Date of ordination (as priest): 29 June 1930
Educational attainments: BA (NUI), 1926
Missionary activity/leadership positions: Travelled to South Africa and later Northern Rhodesia in Sept. 1931; Appointed Prefect Apostolic of Victoria Falls in 1936; Superior of Capuchin Foreign Missions, Africa, 21 June 1935 and reappointed on 14 Oct. 1938 and from 1942-46; General Secretary for Education of the Hierarchy of Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia) in 1951; appointed General Secretary to the Hierarchy with the title of ‘Very Reverend’ with privilege of former Provincial Minister as understood in Mission Statue No. 134 granted by the Capuchin General Definitory on 20 July 1963.
Date of death: 3 Dec. 1972
Place of death: Bon Secours Hospital, Dublin
Place of burial: Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin

Baptismal name: Joseph Jennings
Religious name: Fr. Bernard Jennings OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 21 Feb. 1850
Place of birth: Donoughmore, County Cork
Name of father: Joseph Jennings
Name of mother: Catherine Jennings (née Buckley)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 12 Nov. 1874
Date of first profession: 12 Nov. 1875
Date of final profession: 26 Nov. 1878
Date of ordination (as priest): 13 July 1879
Leadership positions: Fr. Bernard served as Guardian (local superior) of the Church Street community in Dublin from 1883-1886. He served as Provincial Minister (Superior) of the Irish Capuchins from 1895 to 1898.
Date of death: 26 Dec. 1904
Place of death: Private Hospital, 9 Lower Lesson Street, Dublin