Patrick Thomas O'Connor
Born
Knocknagoshel
Co. Kerry
1949
Received as a
Presentation Brother
Mount St. Joseph
1966
Professed 1968
West Indies
1970 -1972
Reading, 1972 - '73
Colaiste Therese 1977 - '78 Birr 1978 - 1990
Bray 1990 - 1999
Ghana
2000 - 2002
Died
Navrongo, Ghana,
2002
Buried Mount St. Joseph
Kongo Logre,
Ghana
Reference:
Register,
Mount.St. Joseph.
Annals,
Barbados, Grenada,
Birr, Bray.
Ghana Region Newsletter,
Autumn 2000
Br. Patrick Thomas O'Connor
Patrick O'Connor was a native of Boula, Knocknagoshel, Co. Kerry. He was born on 21st September 1949, one of the family of five daughters and four sons of Thomas and Joan O'Connor.
Having completed his primary education at the local national school he came to Colaiste Therese, Greenmount in 1963 to begin his second level studies.
He was received as a Presentation Brother in Mount St. Joseph, Cork, taking Thomas as his name in religion, in August 1966 and made his profession of vows two years later.
Br. Thomas served on the West Indian mission in Barbados and Grenada from 1970 to '72 and in Reading, England from 1972 to '73.
In 1977 he graduated from University College, Cork with a B.A. in Irish and Archaeology.
Br. Thomas was very athletic and during his student days he excelled at many games, particularly Gaelic football.
He taught in Colaiste Therese, Cork, in Birr and in Bray. He was community leader in Birr from 1987 to 1990 and in Bray from 1991 to 1997.
In 1999 Br. Thomas volunteered for the Ghana mission, arriving there on 4 January 2000. He taught first at Zamse Secondary Technical School in Bolgatanga, moving to Notre Dame, Navrongo, in September 2002.
An unassuming man, he went about his duties diligently and without fuss. He was a great community man, enjoying the company of his confreres and enlivening many an evening with his stories and the occasional song or tune on the accordion.
On the evening of Monday November 4th 2002 Br. Thomas died at the War Memorial Hospital in Navrongo. He had been ill only for a few days with cerebral malaria, a particularly virulent form of this tropical disease.
His unexpected death after a short illness was a great shock to his confreres and friends in Ghana and in Ireland. When Bishop Lucas was told of Br. Thomas' death he said "You Presentation Brothers are deepening your roots here in Ghana."
His funeral Mass in Navrongo, on Wednesday November 6th, was attended by all the Brothers in the region, the Christian Brothers from Tamale and the F.I.C. Brothers from the Upper West Region. The staff and students from Notre Dame and many friends were among the mourners. The Mass was concelebrated by Bishop Lucas, Father Simon, headmaster at Notre Dame, and several priests of the diocese, and the hymns were sung by the college student choir.
After the Mass the funeral took place to the Brothers' novitiate, Mount St. Joseph at Kongo Logre. Here Br. Thomas was laid to rest in the little cemetery, beside Br. James Prud'homme, a Canadian Brother who died in 1993.
Br. Thomas' mother Joan, his sisters Betty, Theresa and Kathleen, and his brothers Tom, Jack and Kerry came to Mount St. Joseph in Cork on Friday, November 8th. His sister Maureen is a missionary nun in Uganda. His father Tom and his sister Noreen predeceased him. Mass was celebrated by Fr. Francis Kodelogo in the chapel at Mount St. Joseph where Br. Thomas had pronounced his vows thirty four years earlier. Fr. Francis had been teaching with him at Notre Dame. Many Brothers, Associates and friends were present. After the Mass all went in procession to the monastery cemetery where a wreath was laid, and after the final blessing the Brothers, as is their custom when a member of the Congregation is laid to rest, sang the Salve Regina.
Masses were also celebrated in the parish churches at Birr and Bray and on December 6th a month's mind Mass was celebrated by Fr. Francis Kodelogo in Br. Thomas' home parish church, St. Mary's, Knocknagoshel.
