Société des Missions Africaines –Province d’Irlande
 |
né le 9 octobre 1900 à Castlerock dans le diocèse de Derry, Irlande membre de la SMA le 2 juillet 1931 prêtre le 21 décembre 1934 décédé le 22 mars 1970 |
1935-1943 missionnaire au vicariat du Bénin décédé à Cork, Irlande, le 22 mars 1970, |
Father John O’DOHERTY (1900 – 1970)
John O’Doherty was born in the Glebe, Castlerock, Co Derry, in the diocese of Derry, on 9 October 1900. He died in the South Infirmary hospital, Cork, on 22 March 1970.
John studied in the Coleraine technical school before spending two years at the Salesian agricultural college, Warrenstown, Co Meath. After farming for a period John decided to follow a missionary vocation. He came to the Sacred Heart college, Ballinafad, Co Mayo, in 1928 and a year later entered the Society’s novitiate and house of philosophy at Kilcolgan, Co Galway. He studied theology in the Society’s seminary at Dromantine, Co Down, between 193l 1935. John was admitted to membership of the Society on 2 July 193l. He was ordained a priest by Bishop Edward Mulhern of Dromore diocese, in St. Colman’s cathedral, Newry, on 21 December 1934. He was one of a group of twelve ordained on that day.
Some months after his ordination, John went to the vicariate of the Bight of Benin in south western Nigeria. Originally part of the vast vicariate of Dahomey, erected in 1860, this territory today forms the archdioceses of Lagos and Ibadan, the dioceses of Oyo, Ijebu-Ode, Ondo, Ilorin and Ekiti, the prefecture of Kontagora. On his arrival, in October 1935, Bishop Francis O’Rourke, the vicar apostolic, appointed John to the staff of St. Theresa’s inter-vicarial minor seminary, at Oke Are, Ibadan, where he joined Thomas Bunyan (superior) and Tom Galvin. This institution provided secondary education and some philosophical and theological training for 20 seminarians from jurisdictions throughout much of south-west and western Nigeria. In 1937 John was transferred to the district of Abeokuta where Martin Kenny was superior. Abeokuta town, capital of the Egbas, was one of the oldest missions in Nigeria, founded in 1880. When John took up his appointment there were 34 secondary stations to be served and a total Catholic community of 3,500 members and 700 catechumens. Abeokuta too was home of the renowned Sacred Heart hospital, founded at the turn of the century by Jean-Marie Coquard, a French member of the Society who was a self-taught surgeon.
John went on his first home leave in December 1939. Returning to his mission in May 1941, Bishop Leo Taylor (who had succeeded Bishop O’Rourke in 1939) re-appointed John to Abeokuta. A year later he was transferred to Ebute-Metta mission, which was the ‘third principal station’ in Lagos town. In May 1943 John responded to Bishop Taylor’s call for volunteers to act as chaplains to the West African Division. John served in Nigeria until mid-1944 when he was posted to Northern Ireland. After six months he was assigned to Sierra Leone, and later was to serve in the Gold Coast (Ghana) and Nigeria. After demobilisation and a period of home leave, John returned to the Lagos vicariate (as the Benin vicariate was now called) in June 1947. He was appointed superior of Topo island, where there was a mission, boarding school and coconut farm.
A year later he was incorporated into the staff of the Ondo Ilorin vicariate which, in April 1950, was erected as a diocese. John was appointed first superior of Ilorin parish. John was to minister in Ondo diocese for a further 18 years. In 1953 he sustained a heart attack and after convalescing he went to live with the bishop in Akure. He did a little light work, assisting Anthony Oguntuyi, a Nigerian priest, who was in charge of the Sacred Heart parish. In 1955 he was sufficiently well to join Fr. Oguntuyi in the mission. In 1956, with a re-occurrence of ill-health, he came to live in St. Thomas Aquinas college, Akure, where he assisted Brother Tom Fitzgerald in the construction of classrooms and other physical plant, including the staff residence. In October 1957 he went to St. Peter and Paul’s parish, Oye, where he ministered with Seamus Whittaker and, later, Richard Devine. In November 1960 John was posted as parish priest of St. Francis Xavier’s, Owo. Five years later, in failing health, he became chaplain to the Catholic hospital at Owo, where he was to minister until 1969 when he was invalided home to Ireland.
A colleague painted the following portrait of John: ‘He was already in his late fifties when I first came to know him in Ondo. He had been over twenty years in Nigeria, and had suffered a severe heart-attack. But he was still working long hard days in a big parish. He never had much patience with easy-going ways, either in curates or in carpenters; it was not unusual to see him snatch up a shovel and mix concrete himself, when his workers were not doing it quickly enough – or to his satisfaction. He had been a military chaplain, and something of the military officer’s stance and manner remained with him – a passion for punctuality, neatness, order. Father O’Doherty preserved and practised, with rare consistency, what some would now call an « old-fashioned » high ideal of the priesthood, and an old-world courtesy. He set high standards of behaviour, and in an age of compromise never grew ashamed of them. He was one of the first S.M.A.’s to « retire » on the missions. When he was no longer equal to running a parish he accepted the chaplaincy of Owo hospital, where he remained active and valued until illness forced him home’.
He is buried in Wilton cemetery.