Fr. Joe Delaney
The death of Fr. Joe Delaney at the age of 82 represents the end of an era where, over several generations, priestly vocations in Ossory often came from what might be called the more prominent farming and commercial families of the diocese, particularly of the North Kilkenny and West Laois areas.
But Fr. Joe set no store by such distinctions, and had other more important achievements to be remembered by, particularly in the living out of a pastoral concept of the priesthood that was strongly based on evangelisation and spiritual support during assignments in Tullogher, Rosbercon, Slieverue, Callan, and St. John’s Parish in Ossory - and in Ballymun and Kenya beyond. He also had notable influence in the area of education as a pioneering teacher and early headmaster of St. Kieran’s College.
Joseph Delaney was born on 12 June 1935, the second child and eldest son of Robert and Ellen Delaney. The Delaney family were connected to the Galmoy area from at least the early 18th. century (the first burial date on a Delaney tombstone in the local cemetery is 1770). Fr. Joe's grandfather, also called Joseph, died in 1943 at the age of 86 (he was born in 1857). He raised a family of thirteen in the townland of Bayswell near Crosspatrick from 1890 onwards and they established themselves in farming and commercial life there and in Thurles and Rathdowney. His son Patrick (an uncle of Fr. Joe’s) died in 1936 at the age of 21 while studying for the priesthood at St. Patrick’s College, Carlow.
Robert Delaney married Ellen Phelan of the Pike of Rushall in Co. Laois, and, after the arrival of their first two children, purchased Bayswell House in 1936. The Phelan family had provided a number of priests to the diocese of Ossory down through the years, including Fr. Tom Phelan, a onetime parish priest of Piltown; Fr. Garret Phelan, who died as parish priest of Windgap; Fr. Ignatius Phelan, who died as a curate in St. John’s, Kilkenny; and Fr. Fintan Phelan, who died by drowning while serving as a missionary in Africa. Members of the Fitzpatrick family of Deerpark near Ballyfin, cousins of the Phelans, became priests in the Archdiocese of Dublin.
Bayswell House itself was of some historical interest: it had been built around 1775 for a branch of the Butler family and then purchased and rebuilt around 1800 by Michael Byrne, whose grand-daughter Ann married a Benjamin Hackett. The Hacketts occupied Bayswell House for a time and were the parents of Dr. John Byrne Hackett, whose children in turn included several notable literary people, including the author Francis Hackett, the New York bookseller Edmond Byrne-Hackett and the Kilkenny-based antiquarian and writer Florence Hackett.
Fr. Joe Delaney had an appreciation of these literary connections in later life (he knew Florence Hackett briefly through mutual friends before her death in 1963). But they did not feature much in a childhood during which he graduated from Crosspatrick National School and went on to St. Kieran’s College in 1948. His early promise in Maths and Science subjects was rewarded by distinctions at Inter and Leaving Cert level. He also excelled at athletics and on the hurling field, though the suspension of the All-Ireland Senior Colleges Hurling Championship between 1949 and 1956 meant that he was denied a medal opportunity at this level (St. Kieran’s won Leinster Championships in four out of the five years that he was at the college).
In 1953 he went to Maynooth as a candidate for the priesthood, joining a group of Ossory students there that included Ciaran Darcy from his own locality (also recently deceased), Ned Rhatigan from Cullohill (later P.P. Castletown), and Seamus McEvoy from Killesmeestia (currently ministering in Seir Kieran). All were destined for teaching positions at St. Kieran’s, as candidates for pastoral positions in Ossory were still not being accepted due to a surplus of priests at the time.
At Maynooth, Joe studied Science under some of the most distinguished names in their field - McLaughlin in Maths and Experimental Physics, McConnell in Maths Physics - and graduated with an honours degree in 1956 (he was followed shortly afterwards by Seamus Henry, who would join him as a science teacher in St. Kieran’s in 1964).
He went on to study Theology at the national seminary and was awarded the degree Bachelor of Divinity in 1959, before being ordained in 1960. He then returned to Maynooth to study for his Higher Diploma in Education under the then Professor, Dr. Peter Birch, who would become Co-adjutor Bishop of Ossory some three years later.
On his return to the diocese Fr. Joe was immediately appointed to the staff of St. Kieran’s, teaching Maths at senior level and - with his colleague Fr. McEvoy - introducing a new way of thinking and relating to students that was regarded as a breath of fresh air. Among his ‘revelations’ was an observation that it was fine for young people to like pop music, because it was created to appeal directly to youthful feelings and dreams. He was always proud of the achievements of his students, and particularly so in the case of his cousin John Ryan of Holycross, who later joined the Kiltegan Fathers, took his Ph.D at UCC and became a Professor of Mathematics and Director of the Coding Theory Programme at the University of Mzuzu, Malawi (in 2016 he was appointed Bishop of Mzuzu).
Alongside this Fr. Joe became involved in promoting art in the college and outside it, and also joined in local literary activities alongside fellow St. Kieran’s alumnus Frank McEvoy, who was involved in producing ‘The Kilkenny Magazine’ and organising speaking engagements for Irish authors in the city. Fr. Joe also encouraged the literary leanings of college students, assisting in the launch of ‘The Mirror’, a student magazine that set a headline for other colleges and secondary schools to follow.
In 1969, Fr. Joe was appointed as Headmaster of the secondary school at St. Kieran’s, a role that developed from a previous appointment of Fr. Gerry O’Sullivan (who became P.P., Ferrybank) as Vice-President with responsibility for that aspect of college administration. He approached his new position with tremendous vigour and energy, bringing the curriculum into the modern age insofar as he could under the policies of the Department of Education, then headed by Padraig Faulkner, and still grappling with the fallout from the announcement of free secondary education two years earlier. In 1971 he undertook a post-graduate course in Education Administration at Boston College. When he ended his assignment as principal at St. Kieran’s in 1975, he was succeeded by his Maynooth classmate Fr. McEvoy.
In the same year he was appointed curate in Rosbercon, and went to live in the curate’s house at Tullogher, where he first served as administrator of the chapel district for a year. During his four years in the parish, he established the pastoral approach which was to mark his entire parish ministry. He had a very focused commitment to what might be called ‘evangelisation’, the working out of the Christian message in the community through faith, prayer and good works based on a study of Scripture.
He researched new thinking in this area, attending courses and reading widely to deepen his understanding. In his personal life however he always remained private, even among his fellow-priests, something that often caused him to be judged as distant. But those who called on him for advice, assistance or spiritual direction knew that he could be depended on to respond in the most meaningful and effective way. In person-to-person communication he had a ready wit and a wide interest in the affairs of the world.
In 1979 he requested permission to take a sabbatical leave in order to serve on the African missions served by the Kiltegan Fathers, and was assigned to the newly-formed diocese of Kitui in Kenya, which was headed by the young Westmeath-born Bishop William Dunne. Fr. Joe served here for four years, becoming a beloved figure in the rural parishes in which he ministered and once again using his background in evangelisation and education to provide a rich input into the lives of his catechists and parishioners.
On his return to the diocese in 1983, he became briefly Administrator and then Parish Priest of Slieverue and Vicar Forane of the Southern Deanery. In his eight years there and in his subsequent appointment as Parish Priest of Callan in 1991, he continued to put into practice his well-thought-out interpretation of the priesthood.
In 2001, at the age of sixty-six, he resigned his position as parish priest in order to move to membership of the pastoral team at St. John’s Parish in Kilkenny City, concentrating on some of the more specialised aspects of priestly ministry, particularly those related to traditional spirituality and the value of human life.
Interspersed with these Irish ministries were periods of journalism studies in Dublin, when he also served as assistant priest in the parish of Ballymun, and visits to India and Sri Lanka to study Buddhism. Though he could write clearly and eloquently, his published works were confined to a small range of pastoral reviews and local publications.
In 2007 he retired to his former parish of Callan, taking up residence at Mount Carmel Nursing Home, where he lived independently as chaplain and spiritual adviser. In his later years there he was troubled by the onset of dementia, and in his final months was nursed at Strathmore Nursing Home nearby.
His death on 15 March 2018 came as a happy release from the advanced condition. He is survived by a large contingent of siblings, in-laws, nieces, nephews and cousins in the Crosspatrick area and beyond. They include his sisters Mary and Helen Delaney, Dublin; his brother Martin, formerly of the U.S. and now retired in Johnstown; and his brothers (and their wives) Stephen and Carmel and Bobby and Sheila (Bayswell), Tom and Helen (Dublin) and Dick and Betty (Galway).They, and all those who knew him and benefitted from his ministry, can have only the happiest and most rewarding memories of his life and mission. May he rest in eternal peace.