A Heaven Sent story of friendship and ministry

Sr Kathleen Maguire preserves the legacy of Fr Tony Byrne

A new book by Sr Kathleen Maguire charting her enduring friendship and work with the late Fr Tony Byrne, a member of the Spiritan Order, in their Awareness Education Services, was launched in her native Dunboyne at the weekend.

Sr Kathleen, a member of the Presentation Sisters, recently celebrated her 90th birthday. In 1999, she joined Fr Tony at 'No 3' in Cabra, Dublin, providing a full-time ministry helping people to cope with grief by suicide, called 'Awareness Education Services'.

Her association and friendship with Fr Tony began over two decades earlier, on a diploma course on Development Education at the Holy Ghost Missionary College, Kimmage. She was six months into the course when he arrived in to give a class. He was at the time nationally and internationally known as the priest who organised airlifts of food and medicine for the starving and dying children and people of Biafra (alongside Athboy native Fr Dermot Doran).

The Presentation Sisters had been looking for somebody who could evaluate their mission in Pakistan, and Tony's lectures and his creative and practical sessions on human development, evaluation, and pastoral development, made him the perfect choice. In October 1976, he arrived to Rawalpindi city in Punjab, Pakistan, where Sr Patricia became one of his two co-workers on the evaluation programme, which was to last until January 1978.

After his departure, Fr Tony continued to facilitate programmes on development, pastoral planning, and on peace and justice in many African countries, in Papua New Guinea and Jamaica. Sr Kathleen remained very involved in Cathechetics in the Presentation Convent School, Ralwalpindi, pastoral work in St Joseph's Cathedral Parish, and the follow up to implementing the Pastoral Plan. All the while, she was in constant contact with Fr Tony, at times not easy due to the great distances between them, and the primitive means of communication in some of the developing countries.

In July 1979, Sr Kathleen was forced to end her mission in Pakistan and return home due to illness, having contracted hepatitis B through an infected injection. Return to Pakistan was inadvisable, and after her treatment at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, she accepted an appointment to Westmeath, where she taught religion at Mullingar Community College.

In 1996, Fr Tony returned home after spending 35 years on foreign missions. Still full of energy and enthusiasm to meet the felt needs of the people, he started running courses in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel on Bachelor's Walk, Dublin. One of these courses was on suicide and the sorrow and pain it causes. One aspect of Kathleen's ministry in Mullingar at the time was care of the bereaved. The members of the Parish Bereavement Support Group had just completed special training on helping people cope with grief by suicide. At Tony's courses, Kathleen was asked to give an input on grief. Eventually, Tony asked her to go work with her on a permanent basis, and she decided to leave Mullingar after 18 years, ready for a new mission.

Fr Tony and Sr Kathleen presented their programmes at Awareness Education Services with a pastoral approach, taking into consideration the development of the whole person, embracing the damage done to a person in terms of physical and mental health and the negative effects deep psychological pain can have on their lives.

In her book, 'Heaven Sent – A Story of Friendship and Ministry', Kathleen details some of the content of these programmes, their 'inputs' as she believes that they are still, unfortunarely, very relevant in today's world. She reproduces their inputs on dealing with suicide, as well as bullying, and shares some personal testimonies.

“Between 2004 and 2016, we were priviliged to be invited to share our programmes in England, Scotland, Wales, Iceland, Kenya, The Gambia, America, Canada, and Australia,” she explains, as well as Dubai.

By 2010, Patricia and Tony were cutting back on their workload, and by 2015 decided to call it a day. With Tony's health declining, the first day of Covid-19 was a dramatic one, with Kathleen prepared to stay with him during lockdown, and his neighbour's house going on fire the same day, leading to difficult living conditions and a refurbishment.

Eventually, Tony made the brave and painful decision to move to the Sacred Heart Residence in Raheny, but there were still regular visits from family and friends, short drives, and lunch out twice or three times a week in the Skylon Hotel, where there was a memorable celebration for his 90th birthday.

Fr Tony died at Beaumont Hospital on Friday 23rd February 2024, and Sr Kathleen says she was honoured and privileged to be invited to place the symbols of the Bible and the Cross on his coffin at his funeral in the Holy Spirit Parish Church, Kimmage Manor, where she had first met Tony some 48 years earlier.

In her introduction to her book, she says: “I believe it is vitally important to write our memories and so preserve the lives of people and the good works they have done .... It is with these sentiments that I share the story of my friendship and ministry with Fr Tony Byrne, and how our friendship helped us to bring the message of God's unconditional love to those in need of comfort, understanding, forgiveness, care and peace.”

In a foreword, Dr Marie Murray, clinical psychologist and author, and Adjunct Professor, School of Psychology, UCD, says: “Beautifully narrated by Sr Kathleen Maguire about her friendship and collaborative ministry with Fr Tony Byrne, it is a story straight from the heart. It is an important memoir written in the aftermath of Fr Tony's death to preserve his memory and record the synergistic ministry that he undertook with Sr Kathleen.”

Former governor of Mountjoy Prison, John Lonergan, launched 'Heaven Sent' at St Peter's Dunboyne GAA clubhouse on Saturday. Proceeds from the sale of the book will go towards the work of the Presentation Sisters in the Holy Land for the people of Gaza. It will be available to purchase in Constantia, Dunboyne; St Mary's Parish Shop, Navan; Cathedral Shop, Mullingar; Millie Walsh, Mullingar; Fitzsimons, Virginia, Co Cavan; and Knock Shrine Book Shop.