A coffee morning was held in Dalgan on Wednesday 22nd January 2025 to honour Michael O’Sullivan on his retirement after more than 30 years of loyal service as a Columban Co-worker.
Accompanied by his wife Brenda, Michael heard Columban Regional Director, Fr David Kenneally, as well as Fr Pat Raleigh and Sr Monica Kelly pay tribute to his work, witness and friendship.
Addressing the gathering, Fr David explained that Michael and he had known each other “for more years than I care to remember. Michael was probably involved with the Columbans before I joined!”
Photo: ColumbanMissionImages
Throughout the years, Fr David said Michael had been “a source of common sense and inspiration” helping guide the Columbans “in various aspects of mission awareness, justice and peace”.
He paid tribute to Michael’s role in keeping the debt coalition group together and for translating what Columban missionaries brought back from mission to Ireland into “language that could be understood” as well as to his work with the Columban’s Migrants Rights Centre in Dublin and with the Dublin Interfaith Forum.
“Most of all you have been a friend to every single person in this room. On all our behalf, I wish you a very happy retirement and enjoy life and time with your grandchildren.”
Photo: ColumbanMissionImages
Columban Sr Monica Kelly said it had been “really wonderful to work with Michael”. Along with Srs Lucia and Mary as well as Columban Lay Missionary Angie Escarsa, it had been “a team effort” at the Columban Centre in Dublin.
“I want to give credit to Michael for all he did over the last 12 years at the Columban Centre. He was always so insightful and cooperative. It was a great joy and blessing for me and all of us in the Columban Centre to work with you.”
Fr Pat Raleigh said the Columbans “owe a huge debt of gratitude to both Michael and Brenda” and added that he would be “greatly missed” but he assured Michael that the bonds of friendship will continue into the future.
“It has been a pleasure for me to have worked with Michael for so long. Today is not the end of the friendship Michael, you will always be most welcome in Dalgan. Every blessing and good luck Michael and Brenda.”
Photo: ColumbanMissionImages
In his speech Michael O’Sullivan recalled the many Columbans with whom he worked who are no longer with us.
Noting that he had worked for the Columbans for just over 31 years he highlighted how his connection with the Columbans goes back 47 years to when he was a young 17-year-old student.
“They say it is important to find your tribe when you are young. My tribe was the Columban students I met in Maynooth when I was a lay student there. They shaped how the values I was brought up with by my parents expressed themselves. They led me off on a different road because I was heading into an academic career. I diverted from that,” he recalled.
Initially his social justice work was with troubled boys in Dublin’s inner city where he was joined in this work by some of his Columban friends from Maynooth.
“They encouraged me to take up a theology degree, which in the mid 80s was not maybe the ‘wisest’ career choice,” he joked. It resulted in him working in Dalgan.
“When I came here, I felt this was a place that I could come to – I was always met and treated as one of the Columban family here.”
Photo: ColumbanMissionImages
“I was lucky in terms of my work here that I worked with some great people: Pat (Raleigh) had a real passion for mission. We worked together and fought together for many years! Ger (Clarke) and I worked together for 25 years trying to respond to what we thought was the needs of mission in Ireland today. Ger brought great energy and great creativity particularly to his work with the schools.”
Then he began working with Clare (Carey) in 1993 when she came to Dalgan as a lay missionary and became part of the team. “I worked with really great people.”
“I was really lucky that I felt part of the Columban family, and there is a Columban family,” he said and highlighted Lay Missionary Angie (Escarsa) with whom he worked for over 25 years.
Photo: ColumbanMissionImages
“I was very lucky in the last part of my time working with the Columbans that I could work with the Columban Sisters in the centre in Dublin – with Angie and Srs Mary, Lucia and Monica. That was a really happy time. It was a witness to the values that the Columbans stood for and what they contribute to the Church in Ireland.”
Michael also paid tribute to the staff in Dalgan who had “always treated me with great generosity, friendship and warmth, – those on Reception and in the house, in the nursing home and in the regional offices. I always felt the warmth and support of people.”
Though it was a day of farewell, there was also a welcome for Philip Gunn who has been appointed in the region as the new general manager.
Philip, who started in the role this week, told the Columbans and staff he was “looking forward to working with you all and getting to know you all”.
He related how he was born in Singapore as his father served in the RAF and then joined a Hong Kong trading company. “So, I have lived in Hong Kong, in Japan and in Indonesia.”
“Coming to an occasion like this really shows me the nature of the place and the nature of the people that I will be dealing with. I am really excited to join you,” he said.