Fr Senan Timoney RIP

Fr Senan Timoney died unexpectedly and quietly on Ash Wednesday. At the age of 85 he could look back on a life in four provinces, having quartered his years neatly between Galway, Limerick, Dublin and the North.

As he had covered Ireland in his residences, he covered many of the Province’s houses and ministries with distinction: formation (Minister of Juniors, Director of Tertians), teaching (of Irish, Maths, French, sociology, religion, rowing), headmastering in Mungret, administering (Rector, Socius to Provincial), spiritual direction, pastoral and retreat work, keeping the accounts for Brian Lennon’s chip shop in Portadown, and accompanying the brethren through it all, a good companion and sought after in every house.

He was a formidable golfer, neat and accurate, with a trim figure which in the last years was wasted to the point of emaciation. On Ash Wednesday five years ago they diagnosed the blood condition which required regular transfusions. He moved from Belfast to Cherryfield, where the staff remember his engagement with life, always interested, ready to talk about the TV programmes he had watched, alert to the sick and the suffering, welcoming his countless friends.

He consciously kept death – and any talk of death – at bay. In the end his family and several Jesuits were round him  He was given the ashes, and was alert practically up to the moment when the Lord took him. May God be good to him.

Funeral arrangements:

In repose in Cherryfield Lodge from 2pm to 4pm, Sunday 17 February. Prayers at 4pm.

Funeral Mass in Milltown Park Chapel, 11am on Monday 18 February; then to Jesuit plot in Glasnevin Cemetery.