Fr Patrick Brennan OP (1936 - 2023) - an obituary

Patrick Brennan died in Tallaght

University Hospital on Friday, September 1.

He was born on New Year’s Day 1936.

Patrick, who was known generally in the province as Paddy or Pat,  grew up in Passage West in County Cork, where his father was the local Garda Sergeant.

In the past there was always a close and friendly relationship between priests and An Garda Síochána.

This is open to correction but I think I can recall Patrick telling me that he cycled from Passage West to school at the CBS in Cork City, which is a distance of approximately 12 kilometres.

On completion of his Leaving Certificate he joined the Irish Dominicans in his home city in 1954, where he spent his noviciate and first year philosophy at the Dominican Priory in Pope’s Quay on the north side of the River Lee. On receiving the habit he was given the religious name Walter, which he dropped after the reforms of the Vatican Council. For many years he was known as Wally.

He studied philosophy and theology at St Mary’s Priory in Tallaght, which was then a village outside Dublin. Patrick was ordained a priest in July 1961. 

On completion of his theological studies he moved to the Dominican Priory in the Claddagh in Galway, where he obtained a BA at University College Galway.

While he was in Galway he was  pastorally engaged in the community in the Claddagh and founded a soccer club, which became a vibrant sporting activity in the local community. 

People in the Claddagh still fondly remember the work that he did with the soccer team and a former player on one of his teams recalls how the club was very disappointed when they heard he was leaving Galway. “You know, Pat should  have been left in Galway back then. He was so loved in the area and he was really enjoying himself. He did such great work with all the young people who were involved with the club," a former player recalls.

On completion of his studies at UCG he was assigned to the Irish community in Trinidid in the West Indies. While there he was involved in pastoral work in a number of parishes and taught at Holy Cross College in Arima.

When Pat went to Trinidad in the mid to late 1960s Irish Dominicans were running many parishes and a secondary school. In 1974 there were 60 Irish Dominicans on the Caribbean island. Today there are nine Dominicans in Trinidad, including two Irish priests. An Irish Dominican, Finbar Ryan, a fellow Cork man, was archbishop in Port of Spain from 1940 to 1966.

Patrick was a renowned operatic singer. He was at his most fluent and most talented when he was on stage singing. He thrived on it and and loved to be asked to sing. On the final day of a provincial chapter in Tallaght in the 198os he was asked to sing after lunch. He lifted the roof off the refectory and was delighted that he had been invited to sing among his own fellow Dominicans.

His talent for singing and music was never fully appreciated or recognised within the Irish Dominicans.

One could easily get the impression that Pat was something of a showman and enjoyed the limelight. Yes, he enjoyed his singing in public but behind the seeming bombast and braggadocio Pat was a profoundly shy person, who suffered from depression. It was something he kept very private and mentioned it to few people. It played a significant role in his long life.

Pat was a sensitive person, interested in poetry and well read in English. He had an enquiring mind and would ask pertinent questions as to what life was all about. He was keenly interested in the God question. 

He followed many sports and while in Trinidad played a weekly round of golf with fellow Dominican Leo Donovan. 

One of Paddy’s two sisters had a mobile home on the Maherees in West Kerry. His sisters truly spoiled him and he so enjoyed spending time in the mobile home, playing golf, walking on the beach and allowing himself to be spoiled by his sisters. He wallowed in it, though pretending not to, and they loved him.

In the mid 198os Pat returned to Ireland, spending some time in Holy Cross, Sligo and St Martin’s Parish, Tallaght. But he found it difficult to settle in in a country, which he had left 20 years earlier, and returned to Trinidad.

While he was in Holy Cross in Sligo among his jobs was that of bursar. He was conscious that the Dominicans lived off the generosity of the people and was careful with the money, which he managed on behalf of the community. He was careful with other people’s money. It was an admiral quality of his.

I lived with Patrick in Sligo. At first he came across as an aloof and distant person. People could easily have got the impression that he was something of a snob. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, Paddy was an extremely shy person, never exactly sure how to read a room. He was a man of a nervous disposition, unsure about himself, especially in unfamiliar company.

Paddy was quietly kind to people and genuinely interested in the lives and stories of those whom he encountered.

He took preaching the Gospel seriously and was forever pained to avoid cliches, drivel and all sorts of pious humbug. And of course, he enjoyed singing at Mass.

Anyone who got to know Paddy Brennan will be well aware that he was a thinking person, who thought and even prayed about his faith.

Because of ill health Paddy returned to Ireland close to 10 years ago and was a member of the community in St Mary’s Priory, Tallaght. He had been in a poor state of health for some time, during which he was lovingly cared for by the team of carers and the prior in the priory. Some weeks ago he was admitted to Tallaght University Hospital, where he died on Friday.

May he rest in peace.

The body of Patrick Brennan will lie in state in St Mary’s Priory Tallaght from midday on Monday, September 4. Removal to the priory church at 5.30pm on Monday. Requiem Mass at 11.30am on Tuesday, September 5, followed by burial in the community cemetery.