Dalgan

Situated three miles south of Navan on five acres of parklands and woods, Dalgan Park is the home of the Missionary Society of St Columban in Ireland. The college was built as a seminary in 1938 with the first students arriving in 1941. The college takes its name from the St Columban’sCollege, Dalgan Park, Shrule, Co Mayo, where the first seminary was founded in 1918.

Today, Dalgan is home to many actively retired Columbans who spent most of their adult life overseas. While they are no longer in active ministrythey support local groups such as the Legion of Mary, the Vincent de Paul and provide spiritual guidance to many lay groups and individuals.

Many retired Columbans make themselves available to assist where needed with the sharing of their stories and their lived experience of overseas mission.

Dalgan also houses a Nursing Home, the central administration of the Columban Missionaries in Ireland, the editorial and subscriptions office of the Far East magazine, the Dalgan Ecological Institute and it provides Mission Outreach and accommodation for organised groups.

It is a place of welcome and hospitality and the woodlands provide a place of recreation, engagement with nature and biodiversity for the many visitors who come here every day.

Dalgan Nursing Home

When we were students in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Society of St Columban was just forty years old. Some of the early pioneers had already died. One of our two co-founders, Bishop Edward Galvin, died in February 1956; Fr John Blowick would live until June 1972.

By the 1990s the number of men returning to Dalgan, worn out after years of mission in difficult places increased greatly. It became evident that we needed a Nursing Home to care for them. Plans were drawn up to extend the ground floor of Dalgan’s West wing into a modern Nursing Home with 34 rooms for patients and a fully qualified nursing-staff.

By 1997 Frs PJ Kelly and Cathal Coulter had collected sufficient funds and the new Nursing Home was built.

The Nursing Home has been a blessing for Columbans in the Irish Region. However, it has become more difficult to find the funds to support and maintain it. We are able to offer this essential support to our missionaries thanks to the generosity of our donors.

Support Columban Missionaries in our nursing home in Dalgan by donating online here: