John O’Rourke was born in
He attended the CBS in Newry, where his brother later taught.
John was a gifted Gaelic footballer, played a pivotal role on the school team, helping to win many trophies for the school. Had he not joined the Dominicans, it is said he would most likely have made the Down county senior football team. He also played soccer while in Tallaght but his first love was always Gaelic football.
He was an accomplished Irish dancer.
John completed his noviciate year and first philosophy in St Mary’s, Pope’s Quay, Cork before moving to the Dominican house of studies in Tallaght.
After priestly ordination he spent a year in San Clemente in Rome. As a young man he was elected prior in St Catherine’s Newry, spending nine years in the job. While in Newry he contributed to the production of a very fine book marking the centenary of the Dominicans in the town. That book, in turn, was a follow up to the publication 50 years earlier marking the golden jubilee of the Newry Dominicans.
He worked on the province’s school retreat team. A member of the province, who gave a retreat with him in Millstreet Community School in 1978, recalls how impressed he was with John on that occasion.
John spent a number of years working as a chaplain to religious sisters in the United States.
Before moving to Holy Cross, Tralee he spent a short time in residence in the Dominican Priory in Sligo.
John was a man of integrity and honesty. He lived what he said and said what he lived. Is it possible to say that he was an ‘old-style’ preacher? He had no difficulty expressing his views, which he believed to be the authentic voice of the church. He said it as he saw it. And this at times could upset and annoy those attending Mass.
He and I were present at a Mass to celebrate the 100th birthday of Lally Lawlor in Ocean View Nursing Home, Camp in West Kerry in 2015. Lally was Paul’s mother. At the sign of peace we shook hands and apologised/forgave each other for the hurt or wrong we may have caused each other over the years. In the years following we regularly met, whether in the priory or on occasions in Fatima Nursing Home. I got to see a side of John, about which before I had never been aware. We were even able to share Dominican gossip.
John was a dedicated priest in visiting the sick, those in hospital and people who had fallen on hard times.
Approximately two years ago I called on an elderly woman in West Kerry. In the course of our conversation she asked me did I know a Fr John O’Rourke. I smiled, told her that I did but in the past we had our sparring matches. She went on to tell me the extraordinary kindness John had shown her over the years and how caring and helpful he had been to her. She also mentioned a long list of people John accompanied on their faith.
John was a disciplined person with a daily routine. It’s fair and accurate to say he was an ascetic person.
Immediately after lunch he would be seen leaving the priory heading up town. He was on his way to visit someone in Kerry University Hospital, to a nursing home, or some bedridden person in their home. (Matthew 25:36)
I can recall one summer morning cycling into Tralee before 6am to see John on his morning walk.
He was a man of faith, a man of prayer. Maybe what at times appeared as a dour expression was the result of a personal shyness. Some might say he was a ‘Northern Catholic’ but such terms never tell us anything about the person. It’s worth noting that he spent the first six years of his life during which the United Kingdom was at war.
Dig deep and one will realise that John O’Rourke was a man of strong conviction, worried and concerned about the way Ireland was going, as he was too, about the direction the Order and the Church were taking.
The man who was fleet of foot, was a private person, who could on occasion exhibit a quirky sense of humour.
John died on August 8, feast of Saint Dominic in Our Lady of Fatima Nursing Home, which is managed by the Dominican Sisters of Saint Catherine of Siena of King William’s Town.
May he rest in peace.
John's body will be lying in state in St Anne’s Chapel, Holy Cross Priory, Tralee today, Friday, August 9 from 2.30pm to 6pm, when his body will be removed to the adjoining church. Funeral Mass in Holy Cross Church at 11am, tomorrow Saturday. Burial afterwards in Rath Cemetery.
1 comment:
This morning I was shocked to learn of John O'Rourke's death yesterday. Thank you for penning an excellent piece about John in your blog.
I knew John very well as he was a member of the 1958 group and lived with him in Cork and Tallaght. He was a talented Gaelic footballer and was always proud to be from County Down.
Que Dios le bendiga.
Edward Walsh
Post a Comment