Requiem Mass for Fr Seán – 70 years a Jesuit

Irish Jesuit Socius Terry Howard and fellow Jesuits joined friends and family of the late Father Seán Ó Cearbhalláin SJ at a requiem Mass in his memory in St. Eugene’s Cathedral in Derry (see photo), Saturday, September 5, 2026, at 3:30 pm. Father Seán Ó Cearbhalláin died peacefully in Hong Kong on August 23, 2026, at the age of 87 (or 88 depending on birth calculation). He was the last Irish Jesuit missionary serving in Hong Kong, where he spent decades teaching, guiding students, and supporting the Christian Life Community Hong Kong as ecclesiastical assistant from 1978 to 2024. Derry’s local paper, The Derry Journal, covered the Mass.

Fr Seán was born in Elmwood St Derry, now known as the Bogside, and close to St Eugene’s Cathedral, in 1938. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1956 and was ordained in the cathedral on July 23, 1971.

“I’m sure that somewhere in the Jesuit archives in the future Fr. Seán Ó Cearbhalláin will be remembered and included as the last Irish Jesuit sent out to Hong Kong on mission as well as the last Irish Jesuit to die there,” said Fr. Colum Clerkin, a former Vicar Forane and Parish Priest now assisting in St Eugene’s, who gave the requiem homily.

Fr. Clerkin spoke of the late priest’s ‘gentleness’, his ‘deep humility’ and his ‘mischievous sense of humour.’ “He grew up in the shadow of the cathedral where his pilgrim journey of faith first began,” he said, adding, “It was in this cathedral that he received the sacraments of Penance, Eucharist and Confirmation. His faith was nurtured in the family home… He began school in Francis Street beside us. And in the Brow o’ the Hill, Christian Brothers, and later St. Columb’s College. Seán gradually grew more and more in the love and appreciation of the gift of faith he had been given.”

Fr Clerkin also told the story of a possible heavenly sign given to Fr Seán when he embarked on his first mission to Hong Kong, and landed at Kai Tak Airport »

“Even if Fr. Seán Ó Cearbhalláin had any lingering doubts or second thoughts when he first set out off for Hong Kong as young Jesuit seminarian in 1964 to study the Cantonese language his doubts or second thoughts might have been dispelled when he heard the instrumental music playing over the tannoy at Hong Kong airport. It was a familiar tune, ‘Danny Boy’, maybe a little nod of approval from on high that he had arrived in the right place,” said Fr. Clerkin

Fr Seán showed early signs of his future vocation growing up in the Bogside. “Fr. Seán must have been a born teacher. Even as a boy I’m told of nine or 10 he was teaching Irish to the other young children around Elmwood Street. So he was already well in tune at that age with the age old Jesuit saying ‘give me the child for the first seven years and I will give you the man’,” said Fr. Clerkin.

Although he spent many years in Hong Kong, Fr. Seán maintained “a deep love for his native country, especially for Ireland’s language and culture.” He had a stroke when he was only 49 but “continued and persevered with remarkable zeal and enthusiasm albeit in a more limited capacity as a priest, as a teacher and as a Jesuit missionary.”

A Funeral Mass was celebrated for Fr. Seán in St Ignatius chapel, in Hong Kong, on Sunday 6 September » and the main celebrant was Fr. Stephen Tong SJ, Provincial Superior of the Chinese Province. Fr Seán He was buried on the Monday, exactly 70 years after becoming a Jesuit.