Doyle, Irenaeus, 1922-2014, Capuchin brother

James Doyle was born in Sillagh House, Naas, County Kildare, on 10 November 1922. He entered the postulancy program for the Capuchin Franciscans on 28 June 1954 and was received as a novice in the class of 1955-6 at the Kilkenny Friary. He was given Irenaeus as his religious name upon joining the Order. He made his solemn (final) profession on 2 January 1959. His first assignment was as a farm worker at Rochestown Friary in County Cork. On 12 January 1962 he travelled to the United States and was assigned to the novitiate house in Wilmington in Delaware. He worked as a farmer, groundskeeper, and cook and in 1963 was part of the first community established at San Lorenzo Seminary in Santa Inés in California. He was assigned to San Lorenzo for three terms: 1963-71; 1976-88; and 2007-11. From 1971 to 1976 he worked at St Francis High School in La Cañada Flintridge, California, doing general maintenance for the school and some cooking for the friars. In 1988 he joined the first provincial mission in Yécora, Sonora, Mexico and in 1999 he was at the novitiate San Fidel in Tres Ojitos, Chihuahua. He worked in Mexico for nineteen years before returning to San Lorenzo Seminary. In 2011 he retired from active religious ministry and lived at the Mercy Retirement and Care Center in Oakland, California. He died at the Care Centre on 4 October 2014. He was buried in the cemetery adjoining San Lorenzo Seminary in California.

Baptismal: James Lawrence Doyle
Religious name: Br. Irenaeus Doyle OFM Cap.
Date of birth: 8 Nov. 1922
Place of birth: Sillagh, Naas, County Kildare
Name of father: Joseph Doyle
Name of mother: Mary Doyle (née Stapleton)
Date of reception into the Capuchin Order: 1 Jan. 1955
Date of first profession: 2 Jan. 1956
Date of final profession: 2 Jan. 1959
Missionary activities: Travelled to the Western United States mission custody in Jan. 1962
Date of death: 4 Oct. 2014
Place of death: Mercy Retirement and Care Center, Oakland, California
Place of burial: Cemetery, San Lorenzo Seminary, Santa Inés, California