November Prayers

It is at this time of the year that we remember the faithful departed. We invite you to add names of those you’d like to be remembered, to our November prayers list. These names will be placed before the altar in the chapel at St. Columban’s and remembered in the prayers of the Columban community throughout the month of November.

Fr. Noel Daly was born on 25th December 1940 in Tullamore, Co Offaly. He was educated at Mercy Convent, Tullamore, CBS Tullamore and St Finian’s College, Mullingar. He came to Dalgan in September 1958 and was ordained priest on 21st December 1964.

Noel was assigned to Korea and served there for the next nineteen years. After language studies he spent the following ten years in various parishes in the Diocese of Wonju. He was elected Vice-Director of the Korean Region and served in that capacity from 1977 to 1983. He also served as Education Officer, Korea, from 1978 to 1980 and was director of the Overseas Training Programme from 1978 to 1983.

In 1983 Noel was appointed Central Education Coordinator with an office in Dalgan. Over the following eleven years he visited all the seminaries, and supervised the various Overseas Training Programmes in the mission countries.

After the 1982 Chapter the Society decided to accept candidates from what were previously our ‘mission countries’, and Noel was much involved in planning local formation programmes.

In 1994 Noel was appointed as manager of the Far East offices in Dalgan. He always had excellent relationship with the staff, and found a way to correct, modify and even repair the most complicated machines in the office. He spent almost thirty years in that position.

He had planned his retirement some six years ago, but his hoped-for successor was elected Regional Director. Noel had to soldier on, working impossible hours, long after the rest of the staff had gone home. All of this effort took its toll and he suffered a massive stroke in September 2022. He died quietly and suddenly on 25th June 2024.

Fr. Cathal Vincent Gallagher was born on 23rd July 1951 in Garrison, Co Fermanagh. He was educated at Devenish PS, at St Michael´s Grammar School, Enniskillen, and at Queen´s University, Belfast before he joined An Garda Síochána in 1970. Cathal served as a Garda in Navan before joining the Columbans in 1973.

He did Overseas Training in both Chile and Peru. Ordained on 7th April 1985, he was appointed to Peru. After language study he served in Parroquia Virgen de la Providencia, also in Parroquia Nuestra Señora de la Paz. He was pastor of Parroquias Jesús Resucitado and Virgen Medianera.

He became Director of Peru Region in 1998. In 2002, he began studies in psychotherapy and obtained a Graduate Diploma in Advanced Psychodynamic Counselling at the Westminster Pastoral Foundation in Kensington, London. During his years of study he worked in the parish of St Francis de Sales and St Gertrude in Stockwell, part of Southwark Diocese.

Following his studies he returned to Peru. He began his ministry with those diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. He founded the Si Da Vida organisation, an important care centre for recuperation, education and leadership-formation through shared reflection in workshops run by skilled professional educators and medical personnel.

With the amalgamation of the Columban Regions of Peru and Chile, Cathal served as the first Director of the newly created Region of South America. Following his term as Director and a holiday at home, Cathal returned to Peru in July 2023.

The Bishop of Carabayllo asked Cathal to begin a new ministry of working with religious in the diocese. He had barely begun this work when he became ill and was diagnosed with an internal haemorrhage caused by an aneurism. He died on 28^th November 2023 in Lima.

Sr. Evelyn Frieder was born in New York City on 13^th November 1928. In 1949, she graduated from St Vincent’s Hospital as a Registered Nurse and remained on the staff there for four years, after which she entered the Columban Sisters in Hyde Park and professed First Vows in 1957. She was assigned to the newly established mission in Korea where she served for a total of 21 years.

In Korea her nursing skills were put to good use in the day clinic and hospital in Mokpo to which the sick poor flocked. She was responsible also for student assessments and the supervision of the nurses in the hospital and teaching part-time in the School of Nursing. On her return to the USA, she completed her Nursing Licentiate, passed the New York State Board exam, and qualified as State Registered Nurse. With a Master of Science in Nursing from Boston University, she returned to Korea and was involved in the Naju leper colony.

In 1978 Evelyn returned to the USA and assumed responsibility at St Columban’s on the Lake in Silver Creek. At a later stage she was assigned to Boston where she was involved in the parish of St Columcille, as well as volunteering in an inner-city day care centre. She was known for her kindness to teachers, parents, and pre-school children.

As her health began to fail, Evelyn then returned to St Columban’s on the Lake. Here she was known for her sense of humour and her ability to speak her mind. Sr Evelyn died peacefully in the Silver Creek community on 10^th November 2023.

Sr. Ana Maria Mulqueeney (known as Maureen to her family and friends and as Ana Maria to the Columban Sisters and the people of Peru) was born on 3^rd May 1930 in Kilfenora, Co Clare.

After completing her Leaving Certificate in 1948, Ana Maria joined the Columban Sisters in Cahiracon and professed First Vows in 1950, followed by Final Vows in 1955. Two years previously, she had been assigned to Hyde Park, Boston where she assumed the role of Assistant Novice Directress for four years, after which she taught in the Columban Sisters’ school in Westminster, California.

In 1960, when an editor of the Star of the East magazine was required, Ana Maria studied journalism in Marquette University after which she worked for four years as assistant editor of the magazine. With the opening of the mission in Peru, there was a need for more teachers, so Ana Maria studied at Mundelein College, Chicago for a Degree in Education. She was then assigned to Lima, where she developed a strong connection with the youth of the parishes in which she worked. She also initiated a programme of Family Catechesis.

Ana Maria spent a total of 47 years teaching and involved in pastoral work in Lima, only returning to Ireland in 2014 as her health began to weaken. She died peacefully in the Nursing Home in Magheramore on 12^th December 2023 (Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe).

We ask for your prayers for the ‘saints’ and ‘martyrs’ among us who have recently departed this life. Our family members, friends, and neighbours, who demonstrated selfless love, kindness, and devotion in everyday life, reflected Christ’s love in their everyday actions. As we entrust their souls to God, may their example inspire us to live with greater faith and compassion, knowing that they now rest in the eternal peace of the Lord.