Fr Columba Ryan OP

Last week I learned of the death of Fr Columba Ryan OP.

When I first heard the news I mistook the man for another Irish Dominican who had lived in London and whom I had briefly met once. And then just today it dawned on me, no that's not the man at all. The dead man is a man, whom I had met on a number of occasions while staying at the Dominican Priory in London.

I know nothing about his spiritual or academic prowess. I know nothing about the books, pamphlets or newsletters he wrote. But I do know the old, gracious and clever man I got to know while visiting the Dominicans in London.

He was always extremely kind to me. He had, at least for me, that rare and cherished gift of making you feel important when you were with him. He always spoke sense to me. This man did not know how to speak clerical mumbo jumbo. Nor was he a conformist and seemed to have the courage to live out his convictions in his ordinary every day life.

He was an old man when he died. I am greatly saddened that I had not seen him in recent years. We had much to discuss, much to agree about and certainly a lot to laugh at together. We could both throw scorn on so much of the nonsense.

It must be a coincidence that he died within days of another prophetic Dominican, Fr Ross McAuley. There would be those who would pronounce them as 'difficult men'. They were never mediocre men.

If I am not mistaken his uncle designed the railway station in Nagpur. Another Dominican with railway connections.

The first meaning the dictionary gives for 'mumbo jumbo' is foolish religious reverence, ritual or incantation. Columba Ryan would indeed smile.