Fr Seamus Anthony Morris OP (1929 - 2023) - an obituary

Unless the person is a proper

demon I think it’s fair to say that most people, women

and men in religious life, look back on their novice mistress/master with a great degree of kindness.

Seamus Anthony Morris, who died yesterday in a nursing home in Sligo, was my novice master in Pope’s Quay, Cork. He welcomed all nine of us to the noviciate on September 4, 1967. 

At the time I was just out of school and probably did not consider Anthony a young man. He was 38.

It so happens Anthony died on the same day the Dominicans in Sligo were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the opening of the present church, the fourth Dominican church in the town since 1252.

The new design was in accord with the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

Anthony was born in Sligo on October 24, 1929. He joined the Dominicans in September 1952 and was ordained a priest on July 13, 1958.

After ordination he did post graduate studies in the University of St Thomas in Rome and Le Saulchoir in Paris, obtaining a doctorate in theology.

On completion of his studies he taught theology in St Mary’s Priory, Tallaght and was sub-master of students.

Anthony was a keen footballer and a lifelong Sligo Rovers supporter. He was known by his contemporaries and indeed by his novices as Dixie. He acquired the name because of his keen interest in soccer. William Ralph ‘Dixie’ Dean, was a famous English footballer, who played for the majority of his career with Everton. After Everton he played for Notts County and eventually for Sligo Rovers, which must be how Anthony acquired the nickname.

In 1965 Anthony was appointed novice master in Pope’s Quay. A post he held for three years. We were his last group of novices. The plan was that he was to go to Nagpur in India, where the seminary of St Charles had been committed to the Irish Dominicans in 1958.

There was a delay with his moving to India. At the time the Indian authorities were making it more difficult for certain categories of foreigners to obtain work visas. Anthony eventually arrived in Nagpur, where he taught for a number of years.  He suffered ill health on the Indian sub continent and found the extreme heat a great burden. India was not for Anthony and he returned to Ireland. 

In the following years he was prior in St Mary’s Priory, Popes, Quay, Cork; Holy Cross, Tralee; Black Abbey, Kilkenny and St Saviour’s in Dublin.

In every priory where he lived he was greatly appreciated by the people who attended our churches. Every Sunday Anthony would be at the back of the church, greeting the people as they arrived for Mass and then as they departed.

He was a most dedicated man and gave his entire life to the service of others, his Dominican colleagues and those to whom he ministered.

Anthony was a tall man with a slight stoop. Yes, he was strict, strict on himself, but he also had a great sense of humour. He was well able to play practical jokes on people and while he was in Cork he regularly sparred with the late Fr Leo Lennon, who was at the time port chaplain in the city. Leo was an extremely funny man and enjoyed life to the full, though, as is often the case with funny, gregarious people, he experienced moments of darkness. The two men had a great sense of humour and had no trouble calling each other to account. The third man in that triangle was Fr Cathal Hutchinson, who was in many respects the ‘nutty professor’. All three men, besides their wit and their ability to poke fun at one another in the most jovial of ways, had a profound sense of caring for people, especially those who were on the margins or experiencing difficult times. The three men were fine preachers of the Word, all with different styles. All three men believed every word they said.

Anthony would often quote to us novices the famous French Dominican, Jean-Baptiste Henri-Dominique Lacordaire (1802 – 1861), who was renowned for telling his fellow Dominicans that if there were going to be one good Dominican then he was going to be that good Dominican.

Anthony, in a self-deprecating way would tell us not to do what he did but rather do as he said.

While introducing his novices to the history of the order he would point out how so many famous Dominicans died in their 40s. He would then quip that all good Dominicans should die in their 40s. Anthony was 94 when he died, and a great Dominican.

As novice master he accompanied us on Thursday cycles to Kinsale and Fountainstown, where we had the use of a house right on the sea. We went swimming in the city baths. It was a different Ireland back then and we had the exclusive use of the pool between 2pm and 3pm every Wednesday. We played football in the ‘Camp Field’, part of the campus of Collins Barracks in the city. Anthony joined us on all our adventures. We played snooker and table tennis but I can never remember our novice master play either game.

I can still remember a Sunday afternoon out cycling with fellow novice Billy Lee, we were eating ice creams, Anthony passed us on his bicycle. Later that day he called us aside and explained to us that Dominican novices should not be seen eating ice cream in public. It was another world. In 1967/’68 a novice wore a black suit, white shirt, black tie and yes, a black hat too.

Anthony was a strikingly fair person. He would not countenance  being deceitful. You always knew Anthony would never laugh behind your back. I never heard him speak badly of another person. Any laughing he ever did was to your face and done in a true sense of fun.

In his elder years he moved to Holy Cross Sligo, the town of his birth. He was delighted to be back home and close to his sister Hilda, who died last year and Madeleine, who is a Mercy Sister in the town.

Because of his interest in sport the community in Holy Cross installed Sky Sports for him on his arrival back in the priory. But it turned out he seldom if ever watched it. Every evening his sister Hilda called for him and no doubt she too had made sure to have Sky Sports available for him.

He was also interested in horse racing and knew the number of times Lester Piggott had won the Epsom Derby.

I have the fondest of memories of Anthony Morris. He was a kind man, a quiet man too. Did I ever have an extended serious conversation with him? Yes, maybe on one occasion when he was my prior in St Saviour’s in Dublin. And that was probably 30 years after we had first met.

May he rest in peace.

Anthony’s body will be lying in state at Holy Cross Friary, Sligo tomorrow Tuesday, May 16 from 11am with removal to the church at 7pm. Requiem Mass at 11.30am on Wednesday, May 17. Burial afterwards in Sligo cemetery.

                                                              Picture courtesy of Pat Lucey