Columban Father Thomas Hanahoe RIP

Fr Thomas Hanahoe (1914-2011)

'We will remember Father Tommy as a well-rounded, pleasant person, with a good sense of humour and a child-like simplicity in spite of his vast erudition. He was a "living archive", storing in his prodigious memory not only a huge array of historical facts but also quotations from Latin authors, songs, poems and even limericks.' Fr Hanahoe was the oldest Columban at the time of is death.

Fr Thomas 'Tommy' Hanahoe died in the Dalgan Nursing Home on 2 September 2011. Born on 29 July 1914, he was educated at Richmond (now Kilmurry) National School, Crossmolina, and St Muredach’s College, Ballina, County Mayo, Ireland. He came to Dalgan Park (the 'Old Dalgan'), Shrule, County Galway  in 1932 and was ordained priest on 21 December 1938.

Assigned to study Canon Law in Rome, he stayed there from 1939 to 1942. On returning to Ireland he was asked to teach in the Kiltegan Fathers’ (Society of St Patrick) seminary for the next five years. Over those years, he made many friends  among the staff and student body.

He was assigned in 1947  to Omaha, Nebraska, USA, where he acted as spiritual director and later taught dogmatic theology in our American major seminary. In 1949 he studied religious education at Catholic University Washington DC for a year.

In 1950 he became Procurator General of the Society with residence in the Collegio San Columbano in Rome and remained there until 1961.

His next appointment brought him to Australia, to St Columban’s College,North Turramurra, NSW, where he taught dogmatic theology, and later moral theology and Church history until 1968.

From 1968 to 1972 he served on the staff of St Columban’s, Navan, again teaching moral theology and Church history.

In 1972 he was appointed secretary to the Central Administration of the Society in Killiney, and later house bursar.

Five years later he was requested  by the director of the Irish Region to do some historical investigations into the Society’s origins, and was later involved in editing the 1978 version of our Constitutions.

His last assignment was as assistant in the Bursar’s office until he finally retired to the Nursing Home.

We will remember Father Tommy as a well-rounded, pleasant person, with a good sense of humour and a child-like simplicity in spite of his vast erudition. He was a ‘living archive’, storing in his prodigious memory not only a huge array of historical facts but also quotations from Latin authors, songs, poems and even limericks. May he rest in peace.