Fr Luke Lynch RIP
Fr Luke Lynch [1919-2007]
| Luke died in the Nursing Home in Dalgan on 21st December 2007, the sixty-third anniversary of his ordination. Born on 3 July 1919 at Maperath, Co. Meath, he was educated at Moynalty and Carnaross National Schools, and in St Finian’s Mullingar. He went to St. Columban’s, Dalgan Park, Shrule in 1938 and to the new college in Navan in 1941 where he was ordained in 1944. His brother John was also ordained in Dalgan in 1951 and died later in Korea. |  |
Assigned to China, Luke went to Hangchow in 1946 after the war. Forced to leave in 1952 he was reassigned to the Philippines in 1954 where he worked in Iligan and Oroquieta until illness brought him back to Ireland in 1959. Despite continuing bad health he worked in London, Cobh, Achonry and Meath dioceses for many years.
Luke seemed to have total recall of his growing up in Meath and of all the different ministries he was engaged in over his long life. He has written of his time in the Philippines ‘where two of us were trying to look after 50,000 people...we did so much rushing around that we had to change our clothes about twelve times a day’. In one of his writings he has a chapter entitled ‘Truth At All Costs’ and that could well be taken as his personal creed and motivation. Never concerned about being politically correct he had a keen eye for what he termed the ‘anomalies of the twentieth century’. Luke will be remembered for his dedication and commitment and for a spark of humour that lightened much of his assessment on the world around him. May he rest in peace.