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| Fr Thomas S O Floinn, second back row, third from left. Tehran, 1970. |
On completion of his Leaving Cert in 1962 he joined the Dominican Order that September, where he spent his noviciate year in St Mary's Priory, Pope's Quay, Cork.
The following year Tom moved
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| Tom Flynn OP |
A fellow student of Tom on hearing of his death said that he 'floated through Tallaght and had a great interest in history.' At the time there would have been approximately 70 students in Tallaght. He also noted how he worked hand-in-hand with the late Fr Philip McShane, who had been a schoolmate of Tom in Newbridge. Back in the day, on joining the Dominicans, young men were given religious names and Tom was given the name Eugene. His school mate Bernard McShane was given the name Philip
For the following 60 years Tom always called Philip by his baptismal name, Bernard, who was always known in the province by Philip.
Tom had a 'thing'; about names. In the 2009 directory of the province he is recorded as TSR O Floinn and in the directory of 2019 he is TSR O Flynn. Elsewhere he is registered as Tomás Simeon R O Floinn. He was known throughout the province as Tom Flynn. It seems he was given the name Eugene on receiving the Dominican habit.
He was ordained a priest in July 1969 by the then archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid. After ordination he did post graduate studies at the University of St Thomas in Rome.
He was a historiographer specialising in Christian Persia and the Middle East; he was a member of the British Institute of Persian Studies. Tom was a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society; the Royal Historical Society; the Historical Institute of the Dominican Order; member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland; contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and the Dictionary of Irish Biography.
Tom had two doctorates, one from Trinity College Dublin, the other from Oxford University.
Both doctorates were subsequently published in book form. And the second of those books received an award of excellence from an American academy.
He was a historian, who had many books to his name.
His close friend 'Bernard', the late Fr Philip McShane, assisted him greatly in his scholarship as did fellow Dominican, Martin Cogan.
Tom spent a number years in St Abraham's Dominican Priory at Jamalzadeh Shomali in Tehran.
The Irish Dominicans went to Iran in 1966 to help in fostering good relations with the Muslim community and also to minister to the Filipinos, who had married local Iranians. The priory and church are still standing but there is no one currently living in the priory, and the church is closed.
In his early years Tom was a very ordered person; a fellow Dominican colleague added that he was also opinionated. He made it his business to dress well and was precise in how he appeared.
I lived in Rome for a year with Tom while he was engaged in his studies. I can still remember him as a polite and friendly man, a gentle person.
During those years the late Fr John O'Gorman was bursar in the community; John was careful with money; there were those who might say he was parsimonious. He and Tom had different ideas about how money should be spent. I was friendly with both men, as a result of which, I had firsthand knowledge of their different views, in other words I had a ringside seat in the regular financial skirmishes.
Tom was in interested the world of ecumenics, indeed during his early studies and in the years following his priestly ordination he was at the vanguard in building up relations with people of other faiths and none. He had many friends who were Anglican priests.
In later years he did some type of summersault on his ecumenical thinking.
Tom saw himself as being a polite and courteous person, which he was but there were occasions when he could arrive unannounced at a priory door anywhere in the world and expect to be greeted with open arms. It worked sometimes but not always.
Approximately 30 years ago Tom fell victim to severe ill health, something that caused him great pain and had consequences for those with whom he lived.
At one stage he stopped talking to me. Eventually I picked up the courage to ask him why; he explained that the provincial had asked me to tail him; an absurd possibility. How could anyone ever belief that? Then again if the US accused Harry Dexter White of being a spy, anything is possible.
Fortunately, I visited Tom when he was a resident in Highfield Nursing Home in Drumcondra. His face lit up when I appeared.
I have fond memories of the year I spent with Tom and because of that experience I am fortunate to have known the man he really was before he was inflicted with a way of life, that was caused due to his ill health.
Funeral arrangements to appear later.
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