Dalgan Park , Columban College

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How the Columban Mission began .

 

At 3 0′ clock a knock came at Fr Blowick’s door. The Bishops wanted to see him. The three priests looked at each other and wondered was this the end.Nervously Fr Blowick followed the messenger across the square and into the board room. At the head of the table sat Cardinal Logue. On his right was the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Walsh, but between the two stood a vacant chair. There Fr Blowick was invited to sit down. The Cardinal questioned him about the project. Then he was asked to leave.

Half-an-hour later they sent for him again only this time the Bishops gave permission for a collection for funds and for a mission college. “It is a consoling thing;” the Cardinal said, “for men whose work is almost done, to see young priests go forward willingly in such a grand work, and without having the Bishops after them with the pitchforks. I thank God that the missionary spirit is still alive.”

The two founders were almost beside themselves with excitement. That same week they produced a mission pamphlet and had 35,000 printed. “It was ready by Friday night and my head was ready for the surgeon,” said Fr Blowick. He set up an office in Dublin to deal with correspondence. At weekends he joined the others making appeals.

They were a little band of five and could not possibly reach every parish in the country. Professors at Maynooth and All Hallows College, Redemptorists, Passionists, and ‘, Dominicans – all joined in the work. Many priests appealed in their own parishes. The whole nation seemed I to throw itself behind the enterprise.

Columban Mission 1918.
Photo	Name	Originally from
1	Rev. Michael McHugh 1876 – 1959	Co Donegal	Worked in Scotland before joining in 1918.He returned from China in 1924 to be Spiritual Director and chaplain.
2	Rev. Edward Galvin 1882 – 1956	Co.Cork	He went to China in 1912.In 1916 , with John Blowick he established the Columbans.He was made a bishop in 1927 . Expelled from China in 1952.
3	Rev. John Blowick 1888 – 1972	Co Mayo	Made professor of Dogma at Maynooth in 1914.He founded the Columbans with Edward Galvin in 1916. Founded the Columban Sisters in 1922.
4	Rev. John Dawson 1895 – 1964	Waterford	Ordained in Dalgan in 1919. He did promotional work in Manchester before departing for China in 1920.Left China in 1926 due to ill health and was incardinated in Liverpool Archdiocese.
5	Rev. Thomas Quinlan 1896 – 1970	Co.Tipperary	Worked in China until 1933.He went to Korea in 1934. A prisoner in WW2 and the Korean war he survived an infamous march.In 1955 he was ordained Bishop of Chunchon,Korea.
6	Rev. Owen McPolin 1889 – 1963	Co.Down	Joined in 1919 and worked for 6 years in China before leading the first group of Columbans to the new mission in Korea.He was placed under house arrest by the Japanese during WW2.
7	Rev. Richard Ranaghan 1889 – 1937	Co. Down	Joined in 1917 , returned from china in 1924. He made the first Columban film “The Cross and the Dragon”.
8	Rev. Edward O’Doherty 1897 – 1967	Co.Donegal	Joined in 1919 . In 1924 elected to the Superior General’s Council.He went to St.Columbans , Nebraska to teach in 1931.
9	Rev. John P. O’Brien 1894 – 1968	Cork city	Joined in 1919 and returned from China in 1924.He went to the U.S. and was rector of the Seminary from 1940 to 1947.
10	Rev. Cornelius Tierney 1872 – 1931	Co.Monaghan	Died from the hardship of captivity while a prisoner of Communist bandits in China , on 28 February 1931. He was 58 years old.
11	Rev. Timothy Leonard 1893 – 1929	Co.Limerick	He went to China in 1920 where he was taken prisoner by Chinese bandits and killed.He is buried in China.
12	Rev. Matthew Dolan 1888 – 1957	Cavan ?	Joined in 1917 from the staff of St.Patrick’s College , Cavan and went to China in 1920 but returned to Kilmore diocese in 1923.
13	Rev. Joseph Crossan 1891 – 1974	Co Donegal	Joined in 1919 and served in China for 27 years.He was the last surviving member of the first team to go to China.
14	Rev. Alphonsus Ferguson 1894 – 1973	Derry city	Joined in 1918 and served in China for 8 years. Returned to Ireland in 1930.
15	Rev. Arthur McGuiness 1893 – 1943	Co Cork	Joined in 1918 . Within a year in China he suffered from malaria and had to leave in 1922.
16	Rev. William O’Flynn 1893 – 1929	Co Cork	A gifted linguist , he joined in 1918. One of the pioneers of the Kiangsi mission.
17	Rev. Michael Mee 1886 – 1957	Co.Monaghan	Joined in 1918 and worked in the US before going to China in 1920.He returned to the US in 1922 due to ill health.

On January 29th, 1918, 19 young students gathered for their first night in the drawing room of an old Georgian building in a remote spot on the borders of Galway and Mayo called Dalgan Park. There, in the flickering light of a few candles, Fr John Heneghan read an extract from Christ’s prayer for his apostles.

On June 29th, 1918, the Maynooth Mission under the title Society of St Columban was officially erected by the Bishop of Galway as a society of secular priests.Eventually, on March 19th 1920, the first band of twenty Columbans left Dalgan for China headed by Frs Galvin and Blowick.

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Old Dalgan Revisited.

Invited by the Shrule ParishCommunity, eleven Columbans returned to the site of the Old Dalgan for what turned out to be an historic and memorable occasion on Sunday September 15. 2002. Nothing remains of the main building, but the memory and spirit of the local people was as obviously genuinely true as it was tangible.

The eleven Columbans were warmly welcomed back to where we had started in 1918 and departed in 1941. After a light lunch we were brought to the site of the Old Dalgan, where a temporary notice board contained maps and photographs of the Old Dalgan, and a printed list of all the Columbans who were ordained there. Thoughfully three golf buggies were an hand to transport those who needed a lift to the still surviving ball alleys, the old tomb and on down to the Black river.

The Davins and Sheridan families who occupy the well kept two surviving buildings, in the area known as Bobbio where formerly the ordained 4th divines lived extended an obviously heartfelt welcome, interspersed with tears, emotions sandwiches tea, and brandy. to the visiting Columbans , in particular to the four of our group who had studied in the Old Dalgan: Tommy Comerford, Michael Donoghue, Oliver Whyte and Paddy Connelly.

Paddy Sheridan had built a beautiful grotto of Our Lady which the Columbans were requested to bless.We invited the Sheridan clan to join us in blessing the grotto with holy water.

Back under the famous ‘Monkey tree’, directly behind the now non-existent main Old Dalgan Building, we celebrated Mass with a crowd of a few hundred people, who had gathered for, what was clearly for them, an emotional and historic occasion.Some of the participants were people who had worked in the Old Dalgan . I met three people who, in 1941,had moved up to work in the new Dalgan in Meath for a few years to help in the transition. Many of the participants were the children or relatives of those who worked in the Old Dalgan, and who were proud to be associated with their ancestors involvement in the Columbian project.

Some had returned from England for the event. There was a particuarly poignant moment when it was observed that Mrs, Teresa Blowick a sister-in-law of John Blowick was present, sitting quietly in the congregation in the middle of an open and normally deserted field , invited by the local parish priest, Fr: Michael Crosby. His brother Ned Crosby, worked as an associate priest with us in Peru.All were invited back for an evening meal in the parish hall.

Many of us Columbans felt overcome and embarrassed at the amazing welcome extended to us by this local community who had never forgotten us but who may have been forgotten by us Columbans in the new Dalgan