Showing 244 results

Baptismal name: Michael Halvey
Religious name: Br. Bonaventure Halvey OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 22 Sept. 1869
Place of birth: Castle Bellew, Moylough, County Galway
Name of father: Michael Halvey (Wood Ranger)
Name of mother: Julia Halvey (née Fahy)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 1887
Date of death: 11 Mar. 1892
Place of death: Franciscan Monastery, Mountbellew, County Galway (*Died of tuberculosis)

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

Baptismal name: William Keogh
Religious name: Fr. Denis Keogh OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 1 June 1908
Place of birth: Dublin
Name of father: Edward Keogh
Name of mother: Elizabeth Keogh (née Kavanagh)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 4 Oct. 1925
Date of first profession: 4 Oct. 1926
Date of final profession: 4 Oct. 1929
Date of ordination (as priest): 30 June 1933
Educational attainments: BA (1st class honours); £100 bursary for translation studies, MA (1930); Sacrae Theologiae Licentiatus (Licentiate of Sacred Theology), Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome (1934).
Leadership positions: Vice-Secretary for the English-Speaking Jurisdictions of the Capuchin Order (1952-1974) at the General Curia in Rome
Date of death: 10 Apr. 1974
Place of death: Rome
Place of burial: Cemetery, Papal Basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls, Rome

James Tommins was born in Dublin on 29 March 1812. Often, when recounting the difficult conditions in pre-emancipation Ireland, he would tell his younger fellow-friars: ‘You were born free. I was born a slave’. As a youth he was apprenticed to a haberdasher, or, more specifically, a button-manufacturer. He frequently attended religious services at the Capuchin chapel on Church Street. In his late thirties, Tommins expressed a desire to become a Capuchin friar. He went to night school to gain the necessary knowledge of the classics, and, by assiduous study, he soon reached the standard required for the novitiate. Then, in 1849, at the age of 42, he was sent to Bruges, in Belgium, for his novitiate and studies. Having taken Edward as his religious name, he was noted for his strict obedience and generous self-sacrifice, which, together with his profound humility, won him the esteem of the Capuchin community in Belgium, and secured his admission to profession. With the successful completion of his studies and having been ordained priest in 1856 by Jean-Baptiste Malou (1809-1864), Bishop of Bruges, he returned to Ireland. The following year Fr. Theobald Matthew OSFC, then Commissary-General, assigned him to Kilkenny. Except for a short period during which he was guardian (local superior) in Cork in 1861, Fr. Tommins spent his entire priestly life in Kilkenny, most of the time as guardian of a small fraternity of two or three friars. He prepared the way for the establishment of a Capuchin novitiate in Ireland; and, at a later period was appointed Commissary-General. On 23 January 1861, Fr. Edward called a meeting of the people of Kilkenny to arrange for the furnishing of the friary church. The meeting was presided over by the Mayor, Thomas Power, and it was agreed to engage Mr. McCarthy, architect, to oversee the improvements to the church, including the installation of the high altar. Once the church was completed, Fr. Tommins was also responsible for the purchase of the garden as far as Pennyfeather Lane. He also gave occasional missions and retreats notably in Castlecomer, Clough and Urlingford. With a shortage of Capuchin priests in the Irish Province, he sometimes said one Mass in Dublin on a Sunday morning; and then took the train to Kilkenny to say a second Mass there. He was also responsible for the inauguration of the Third Order of St. Francis lay confraternity in Cork in about 1866. Of the first six men he recruited as tertiaries, two joined the Capuchins: Br. Joseph O Mahony OSFC (d. 1902) and Br. Felix Harte OSFC (d. 1935). Fr. Tommins was also one of the first to take the pledge when Bishop (later Cardinal) Francis Moran, founded the Total Abstinence Sodality in Kilkenny. He died at the Capuchin Friary on Walkin Street in Kilkenny on 29 July 1889 and was afforded an elaborate public funeral. He was laid to rest in a tomb adjoining the northern aisle of St. Francis Capuchin Church in Kilkenny.

Baptismal name: James Tommins
Religious name: Fr. James Edward Tommins OSFC
Date of birth: c.29 Mar. 1812
Place of birth: Dublin
Name of father: Nicholas Tommins
Name of mother: Mary Tommins (née Casey)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: c.1830
Date of ordination (as priest): 1856
Date of death: 29 July 1889
Place of death: Capuchin Friary, Walkin Street, Kilkenny

Baptismal name: Michael Neary
Religious name: Fr. Fidelis Neary OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 28 Oct. 1855
Place of birth: Freshford, County Kilkenny (Diocese of Ossory)
Name of father: John Neary
Name of mother: Brigid Neary (née Dowling)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 28 Oct. 1875
Date of first profession: 1 Nov. 1876
Date of final profession: 4 Oct. 1880
Date of ordination (as priest): 21 Sept. 1881
Leadership positions: Provincial Definitor (Councillor): 1893-5, 1898-1901; Custos General: 1895-8; Guardian, Capuchin Friary, Kilkenny, 1893-5; Guardian, Holy Trinity Friary, Cork, 1895-8; Guardian, Rochestown Capuchin Friary, 1901-4; Master of Novices, 1898-1901
Date of death: 22 June 1932
Place of death: Cork
Place of burial: Cemetery, Rochestown Capuchin Friary, County Cork

Baptismal name: David Mitchell
Religious name: Fr. Albert Mitchell OSFC
Date of birth: 18 Sept. 1831
Leadership positions: Elected Custos Provincial in August 1876; Guardian, Church Street Friary, Dublin, 1882-3; Founder of the Father Mathew Temperance Association, Church Street, Dublin, in 1880.
Date of death: 27 Sept. 1893

John Joseph Guihen was born in Keadue, a small village in County Roscommon, on 12 February 1898. He was received into the Capuchin Franciscan Order in Kilkenny in August 1914 and took Felix as his religious name. He was ordained to the priesthood on 29 June 1923. Following his ordination, he was sent to Rome for further studies and received a Licentiate in Sacred Scripture in 1926 (one of the first Irish friars to obtain such a degree). During his time in the Italian capital, he wrote an article on the Vatican Missionary Exposition of 1925 (‘The Father Mathew Record’, 18, no. 6. June 1925, pp 171-73). On his return to Ireland, he was appointed a lector in theological studies, first in Rochestown Friary in County Cork and later at Ard Mhuire Friary in County Donegal. For twenty years he acted as a lector for clerical students while also holding the office of Vicar in Ard Mhuire. He wrote a series of pamphlets on the Old Testament which were published by the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland (CTSI) in the 1930s and 1940s. He also held the office of Secretary of the Irish Capuchin Province from 1955 to 1967. He died in the Church Street Friary in Dublin on 14 August 1981 and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Baptismal name: John Joseph Guihen
Religious name: Fr. Felix Guihen OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 12 Feb. 1898
Place of birth: Keadue, County Roscommon (Diocese of Ardagh)
Name of father: Martin Guihen (Farmer)
Name of mother: Anne Guihen (née McDermott)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 27 Aug. 1914
Date of first profession: 8 Sept. 1915
Date of final profession: 12 Apr. 1919
Date of ordination (as priest): 29 June 1923
Educational attainments: BA (1919); Licentiate in Sacred Scripture, Rome (1926)
Leadership positions: Provincial Secretary, 1955-67
Date of death: 14 Aug. 1981
Place of death: Church Street Friary, Dublin
Place of burial: Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin

Edward Cregan was born in Shanagolden in County Limerick on 19 October 1894. He was received into the Capuchin Order at Rochestown Friary in County Cork in February 1915 and took Colmcille as his religious name. Four years later he made his solemn profession. He was stationed in Rochestown College for two years before moving to Holy Trinity Friary in Cork city where he was resident for three years. His next appointment (1921) was as sacristan in St. Mary of the Angels on Church Street in Dublin. In 1924 he was sent as a missionary friar to California. Following the death of Fr. Albert Bibby OFM Cap., Pastor of the Santa Inés Mission, in February 1925, Br. Colmcille was sent there to lend assistance. He worked on various improvement projects at the old Franciscan mission. Aside from helping in the church and sacristy, he also designed and planted the boxwood Celtic cross in the mission garden. He returned to Ireland in the early 1930s and spent most of the religious life (forty years) as sacristan with the Church Street Capuchin community in Dublin. He died on 10 December 1979 and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.

Baptismal name: Edward Cregan
Religious name: Br. Colmcille Cregan OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 19 Oct. 1894
Place of birth: Shanagolden, County Limerick
Name of father: Michael Cregan (Farmer)
Name of mother: Marry Cregan (née Sheehan)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 5 Feb. 1915
Date of first profession: 6 Feb. 1916
Date of final profession: 12 Apr. 1919
Missionary activities: Travelled to the Western United States mission custody in 1924. He returned to Ireland in 1931.
Date of death: 10 Dec. 1979
Place of death: Church Street Friary, Dublin
Place of burial: Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin

Jeremiah Coughlan was born in Ballydehob in County Cork on 2 May 1908. He joined the Capuchin Franciscans in October 1926 and was ordained to the priesthood on 17 June 1934. He was sent to the United States shortly after his ordination. His first appointment was as assistant pastor in Roseburg, Oregon. In 1936 he was appointed assistant pastor in St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Bend (also in Oregon). He would be transferred to and from Oregon multiple times over his life in ministry. He was pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Roseburg from 1940 to 1947. At Bend he was responsible for the building of a new parish rectory. He also served as chaplain at St. Charles Memorial Hospital in Bend. He remained in Oregon until 1950 when he was appointed associate pastor in St. Lawrence of Brindisi Parish in Los Angeles, California. He was present for the establishment of the new Province of Our Lady of Angels (the Western American Capuchin Province) at Burlingame in California in 1979. He retired from ministry and returned to Ireland in the early 1980s. He died on 6 January 1985 and was buried in the cemetery attached to Rochestown Capuchin Friary in County Cork.

Baptismal name: Jeremiah Coughlan
Religious name: Fr. William Coughlan OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 2 May 1908
Place of birth: Ballydehob, County Cork
Name of father: Denis Coughlan
Name of mother: Mary Coughlan (née Duggan)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 4 Oct. 1926
Date of first profession: 5 Oct. 1927
Date of final profession: 5 Oct. 1930
Date of ordination (as priest): 17 June 1934 (St. Eunan’s Cathedral, Letterkenny, County Donegal)
Educational attainments: BA (1930)
Missionary activities: Travelled to Roseburg, Oregan, United States, on 21 Dec. 1935.
Date of death: 6 Jan. 1985
Place of burial: Cemetery, Rochestown Capuchin Friary, County Cork