Born: 13 May 1919, Galway City, County Galway
Entered: 04 October 1937, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 31 July 1951, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1954, Gonzaga College SJ, Dublin
Died: 22 February 2000, University Hospital, Galway

part of the Coláiste Iognáid, Galway community at the time of death

by 1979 at Manhattan Beach CA, USA (CAL) working
by 1986 at Santa Barbara CA, USA (CAL) working
by 1989 at Long Beach CA, USA (CA) working

◆ Interfuse

Interfuse No 105 : Special Edition 2000

Obituary

Fr Peter (Peadar) Feeney (1919-2000)

1919, May 13th Born in Galway
Early education, Patrician Brothers and St. Ignatius College, Galway
1937, Oct 4: Entered the Society at Emo
1939, Oct 5: First vows at Emo
1939 - 1942: Rathfarnham, Arts at UCD
1942 - 1945: Tullabeg, studying philosophy
1945 - 1948: Clongowes, teacher, Cert. in Education
1948 - 1952: Milltown Park, studying theology
1951, July 31: Ordained priest at Milltown Park
1952 - 1953: Tertianship at Rathfarnham Castle
1953 - 1954: Gonzaga College, teaching
1954 - 1958: Clongowes, teaching, Dir. Dramatic Society
1958 - 1965: St. Ignatius, Galway, teaching, Rowing club
1965 - 1970: Clongowes, teaching, Dir. Dramatic Society
1970 - 1976: St, Ignatius, Galway, teaching, Games Master, Rowing Club
1976 - 1978: Belvedere, teaching
1978 - 1995: California, parish work
1955 - 2000: St. Ignatius, Galway, ministering in the community

Peadar was admitted to the University College Hospital, Galway, on 21st January. After surgery on 10th February his health continued to deteriorate. He died peacefully on 22nd February 2000, Feast of the See of Peter, aged 80.

Bob McGoran writes ...

Peadar Feeney and I entered the Society on the same day, October 4th 1937. We were pert of a group of six, who for various reasons arrived later than the usual September novices. I soon learnt that Peadar was a Galway city man, living only a stone's throw away from the Jesuit house. over the next few years I got to know his family well - father, mother, one brother and three sisters. My friendship with them continued over many years.

Peadar had many talents and abilities. Physically strong and hardy, he was an excellent oarsman, swimmer and diver. A fine Gaelic footballer, he had been selected for the Galway minor team. He was also a talented actor and had won various awards in Feiseanna and festivals at a national level. He had a fine tenor voice and he later became a fluent French and Spanish speaker. All of these stood him in good stead in his later work in the Colleges.

He spent almost thirty years of his life teaching in various colleges, especially Colaiste Iognáid and Clongowes. He was a strict teacher - possibly over strict. Not many of his pupils came up to the standard he expected of them. There was no doubt about his ability and knowledge of the subjects he taught : his more talented pupils invariably did well. But the poor progress of others often led to tension in the class-room.

Peadar was a happier person on the playing field or on the river. Here again, he expected a high level of dedication and application, He coached the rowing crews in Galway for a number of years with great success. An indication of this is given by one of the teachers whom I quote later on in this account.

Peadar's other great love was acting and the stage. His productions in both Clongowes and Galway were highly successful. In Clongowes, he was director in the Dramatic Society for the pupils for the two periods he was teaching there. In Galway a great deal of his leisure time was devoted to drama. He founded the highly successful Dominican and Ignatian Dramatic Society (the D&I) among adults, producing mostly Shakespearean and well-known plays such as “Macbeth”, “As you like it”, “The Barrets of Wimpole St.”, “Pride and Prejudice”, “Rebecca” and many others. He had a flair for discovering and developing talent in quite ordinary people and he insisted on high standards not only in the acting but in the staging, costumes and attention to detail. “Even a whisper” was one of his sayings “must be heard at the back of the hall”. Peadar was almost sixty years old when he felt the need to take a break from college life and seek a wider experience. Over the years, he had spent many Summer holidays helping in parishes in America. Now he felt the desire to go into full-time parish work there. He had become friendly with a Pastor in Manhattan beach in California who was glad to have him on a full-time basis. Peadar was very happy in this situation. However, when the Pastor was changed things were not working out so well. He got a change to Santa Barbara parish and a final assignment to Long Beach, a parish which was largely for Spanish-speaking people. Altogether he spent seventeen years in this Apostolate.

Peadar was a man of strong convictions and definite standards. In religious and spiritual matters he was an upholder of traditional values and practices. The liturgy was to be treated reverently, without undue haste. In church, his congregation - many of them daily Mass-goers - did not quite see eye to eye with him, but Peadar could not be budged from his principles, The Mass and the Breviary were sources of great strength to him and he was unfailingly faithful to them up to the time of his death.

At Peadar's funeral Mass, new ground was broken in the oration being delivered not by the usual S.J. but by one of the lay staff in the college, Mr Bernard O'Connell. Bernard had known Peadar for many years and grew particularly close to him in the period before his death. He spoke very eloquently of Peadar in both Irish and English. I finish this account with some short quotations from the sermon.

It was designed to be a five minute visit. Saturday afternoon afforded its usual tempting possibilities but having been sufficiently discommoded to visit a doctor about my back, I wasn't too inclined for temptation. It's a very strange sensation to talk to a dying man and hear him give you eminently sensible advice about your back and your health. But after the advice was proffered and duly accepted, discourse ensued. Five minutes became ninety. A conversation which concentrated on topics such as education, sport, music, the Coláiste, Galway and the call to the Society of Jesus was both rich and provocative

From his entrance into the Society of Jesus on October 4th 1937, Peadar set the highest standards both for himself and others. Meeting him on the Prom on vacation from the States he would despair at the state of the bay. He'd ask you directly what were you going to do about it? Not much, as it happened. But I did admire that righteous indignation of his. About Peadar's prowess as a rowing coach I admired the man that brought a Jes senior crew with just one sixth year aboard to within half a canvas of the Maiden Championship of Ireland in 1974. The winning Garda crew later beat its own senior crew that season. Subsequently, the Guards won the Petite Final at the Olympics and were timed fourth fastest in the world. And Peadar's fifth year lads nearly beat them.

Bob McGoran SJ

◆ The Clongownian, 2000

Obituary
Father Peadar Feeney SJ

Fr Peadar Feeney was three times a member of the Clongowes community and staff. He taught here as a scholastic between 1945 and 1948. He returned after ordination in 1954 for four years as teacher and director of drama and he repeated this dual role for a further spell from 1965 until 1970. He had been in California engaged in parish work from 1978 until five years before his death, when he came back to the St Ignatius community in his native Galway, where he died peacefully in University College Hospital on 22 February 2000, at the age of 80.

Born: 05 September 1935, Dublin City, County Dublin
Entered: 07 September 1953, St Mary's, Emo, County Laois
Ordained: 10 July 1968, Milltown Park, Dublin
Final Vows: 02 February 1981, Boston College High School, MA, USA
Died: 24 February 2014, Cherryfield Lodge, Dublin

Part of the St Ignatius, Lower Leeson Street, Dublin community at the time of death.

by 1981 at Boston College High, MA, USA (NEN) Sabbatical
by 1994 at Granada Hills, Los Angeles CA, USA (CAL) working
by 2003 at Redondo Beach CA. USA (CAL) working

Born: 02 July 1822, County Down / California, USA
Entered: 15 January 1869, Milltown Park, Dublin
Ordained: 1873
Final vows: 02 February 1884
Died: 03 November 1907, Manresa, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Australia

2nd year Novitiate at Stonyhurst England (ANG)
by 1871 at Stonyhurst England (ANG) studying
by 1872 at Roehampton London (ANG) Studying
by 1873 at St Beuno’s Wales (ANG) studying
by 1874 at St Ignatius San Francisco CA, USA (TAUR) working
Early Australian Missioner 1879

◆ HIB Menologies SJ :
After First Vows and Ordination he was sent to California where he worked with great success as a Missioner.
Then Aloysius Sturzo recalled him and sent him to Australia, and he made his Tertianship in Australia.
The great work of his life was in Melbourne, where he died 01 November 1907

Tribute of His Grace Most Rev Dr Thomas Joseph Carr Bishop of Melbourne :
He said that after a long life spent in the service of God, the late Father O’Flinn now slept well. He had worked successfully at Hawthorn and Richmond, and his had been a blameless and unselfish life. His whole life had been a preparation for eternity, and they had every reason to believe that he was now happy with God.
He was past middle life when he entered religious life. Before coming to Australia, he had spent some time in San Francisco, and there to this day, many remember his blameless life. From his old parish in America, letters had been received by respected citizens enquiring as to the state of his health. That showed that his many good deeds had not been forgotten, ad that the memory of his charity had not died out.
In Australia they all knew that he had but one thought - the promotion of the honour and glory of God, and the salvation of souls. He never mixed in secular pursuits, but rightly confined himself to his ecclesiastical duties, and in them found his entire happiness. They might, therefore ask, why pray for him? Well one reason was because God’s ways were not like ours. His measure of human infirmities was not like ours. Though the Almighty only required human perfection, knowing the clay of which we were formed, still He would require satisfaction for every imperfection...........Martha said to Our Blessed Lord.. “I know that he shall rise on the last day”. That hope sustained us in life, enabling us to bear against the trials and temptations which beset our path through life. They would, therefore, remember Father O’Flinn in their pious prayers, calling to mind his good works, his wise advice, his kindness of heart, and his blameless life. They would pray that he might be speedily be admitted into the bliss of heaven.....

◆ David Strong SJ “The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-2015”, 2nd Edition, Halstead Press, Ultimo NSW, Australia, 2017 - ISBN : 9781925043280
Peter O'Flynn entered the Society at Milltown Park, 15 January 1869, as a secular priest, and from 1875-79 worked in the College of St Ignatius, San Francisco, doing pastoral work. He arrived Australia from America. 23 December 1879.
While in Australia he worked for a few years in the parish of Richmond, 1879-80, teaching at St Kilda House, Sydney, 1880-81, at St Patrick's, as a rural missionary, 1881-82, and at Richmond working in the Hawthorn district, 1882-83. For the rest of his life he lived and worked in the Hawthorn parish. He was superior twice, 1886-91, and 1895-99. He seems to have been minister at other times, and was in charge of various sodalities.
At one time he was a “persona non grata” to Archbishop Carr of Melbourne, for reasons that are not clear; but the archbishop preached the panegyric at his funeral in glowing terms, so he must have been forgiven. He recalled among other spiritual virtues, O’Flynn's good works, his wise
advice and kindness of heart

Note from Matthew O’Brien Entry
Matthew O'Brien was baptised at the Immaculate Conception Church, Hawthorn, 11 June 1902, by Peter O'Flynn.