A CONCELEBRATED Mass will be celebrated in St Brendan’s College, Killarney to mark the 100th anniversary of the death in France of Killarney native and World War 1 chaplain, Fr Donal O’Sullivan.
A priest of the diocese of Kerry, he was killed, at the age of 26, on July 5 1916 near Albert in France while ministering to the wounded. He is buried in the cemetery at Bouzincourt in the valley of the Somme.
Born at 6 High Street, Killarney, Donal O’Sullivan was educated at the Monastery
National School, St Brendan’s College and Maynooth and he was ordained in June 1914. He taught in St Brendan’s College 18 months prior to volunteering when the then Bishop of Kerry requested priests and medical doctors to tend to the needs of Irish soldiers in France.
Fr Donal and his brother Ivo, a medical doctor, volunteered and Ivo survived the war.
Fr Donal’s chalice is in the care of the St Joseph’s Young Priests Society having been given to them by a close relative.
The Killarney priest is remembered in a photograph and plaque in the chapel of St Brendan’s
College where the anniversary Mass, in the Irish language, will be held at 7.30pm on Tuesday, July 5. It will be also feature a special liturgy celebrating the centenary of the founding of Cumann na Sagart and Fr Pádraig Ó Siochrú will be the homilist.
Following the concelebrated Mass two talks will be delivered. The first will be a memorial lecture on the life and times Fr O’Sullivan, titled Catholic Chaplains in World War 1, and it will be given by Canon Gerard Casey, PP, Mallow.
Fr Tomás Ó Luanaigh, PP, Fossa, will give a talk on Kerry Clergy in the National Movement. “Throughout the diocese I ask that Fr Donal be remembered and prayed for at Mass on Sunday, July 3. Offer prayers for world peace and for people everywhere who serve in the army of their country,” said Fr Ó Luanaigh.
The seminar chairman will be Dr James N O’Sullivan, Killarney.
