Francis McCabe

GEDCOM Note

Obituary

Fr Francis McCabe SMA 4th Sept 2007

Fr Francis (Frank) McCabe SMA passed away peacefully in the afternoon of 4 September at St Theresa's Nursing Unit, SMA House, Blackrock Road, Cork. He was in his ninetieth year.

Frank was born into a family of two sisters and five brothers in Derrinasoo, Derreenargon, Boyle, Co Roscommon in the Diocese of Elphin on 24 May 1918. He attended Corderay National School before coming to the Sacred Heart College, Ballinafad, Co Mayo for his secondary education with the SMA. In 1941 he came to the SMA Novitiate at Cloughballymore, Kilcolgan, Co Galway and there graduated with BA at UCG. He became a permanent member of the Society of African Missions on 14 June 1946 and was ordained to the priesthood on 13 June 1947. He celebrated his first Mass at the church in Drumboylan. In June 2007 he celebrated the Diamond Jubilee of his ordination.

In 1948 he was sent on missionary assignment to the then Vicariate of Lagos in Nigeria and was appointed to Ibadan. That territory was subsequently divided and in 1952 the Prefecture Apostolic of Ibadan was created becoming the Diocese of Ibadan in 1958 with Bishop Richard Finn SMA the first bishop of the diocese. Frank spent the next twenty years teaching, for much of which he was in the Oke-Are Minor Seminary in Ibadan city, where among his pupils he had more than seven of the present bishops of Nigeria.

In 1968 he took up parish work in Ignore Parish, a rural area between Ibadan and Abeokuta. There was a huge underveloped farm settlement in the parish and Frank procured funds from overseas agencies, funds which he used to buy tractors, trailers and ploughs. He then mobilised the local work force to till huge tracts of land where tobacco and maize were planted. For almost twenty years he continued to motivate and encourage this development. He was then assigned to Moor Plantation a parish in the suburbs of Ibadan.

In 1989 ill-health forced him to return to Ireland and he took up an appointment in Killimordaly Parish in Clonfert Diocese where he spent six years before retiring to SMA House, Wilton, Cork. In 1997 he went to work for a few years in Australia. He retired to Blackrock Road in 2005. He has been in failing health for some time.

His remains will be received at the SMA Chapel, Blackrock Road on Wednesday at 10.00 a.m. He will repose in the Chapel until removal to St Joseph's SMA Parish Church, Wilton, on Thursday 6 September after the Community Mass at 10.30 a.m. for the funeral Mass at 12 noon and burial in the adjoining SMA community cemetery.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.