Former Dominican priest Tom Brodie 1940 - 2026 - an obit

Former Dominican priest Tom

Tom Brodie

Brodie died in a nursing home in Galway yesterday. He had been ailing for some time.

He was born in Crusheen, Co Clare in November 1940. He attended St Flannan’s College in Ennis and De La Salle College, Waterford before joining the Dominican Order in 1959 in Pope’s Quay, Cork, where he did his noviciate. On taking his first vows the following year, Tom moved to Tallaght, where he studied philosophy and theology. He was ordained a priest on July 10, 1966.

After priestly ordination he attended the University of St Thomas in Rome, where he did post graduate studies in theology. He also was a biblical student at the École biblique in Jerusalem.

Tom spent a number of years in Trinidad, where he taught in the seminary. During that time he wrote a weekly column for the local newspaper. He later used those columns in writing his book ‘What Colour is God’s Skin'. It was a pertinent topic at the time as it was the early days of Black Power in Trinidad.

His first and primary passion in life was the study of the Bible.

He studied Greek in secondary school and it is said of him that while shaving every morning in Tallaght it his custom to learn 10 Hebrew words. Tom was a serious student. His fellow students knew that he was not a man to waste time on frivolous pursuits. 

He taught biblical studies in the United States and South Africa.

Tom is the author of many scholarly works on the Bible. He attended biblical international conferences on a yearly basis and was recognised among his peers for his scholarship.

He was the first director of the Dominican Biblical Institute in Limerick, which opened in 2001. Tom remained as director until 2012. The institute closed in 2016.

The Irish Catholic of January 21, 2013 wrote the following about Tom: “This[Tom’s retirement as director] coincided with his publication of Beyond the Quest for the Historical Jesus, in which he claimed Jesus Christ did not exist as an historical person and led the Irish Dominican province to direct him to withdraw from ministry and cease teaching and writing. 

Tom did not accept the findings of the Dominicans.

On retiring from priesthood he married Peig Mc Grath, who had worked with him in the Biblical Institute. She cared for him in his failing years.

May he rest in peace.