Book tells story of pioneering priests

A CORK-BORN priest has detailed the pioneering role of two Cork men who were among the first members of what is now one of the world’s largest international missionary orders.

Dr Henry Twohig has chronicled the work during the late 1800s of John Mary Neenan and Michael Tierney. They were among the first members of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC) order, founded in France in 1854 by parish priest Jules Chevalier.

John Mary Neenan, a young priest from the Cloyne diocese, was the first candidate accepted by Chevalier. Neenan later went on to found the MSC order in Ireland, on the Western Road in Cork.

Michael Tierney, from Churchtown in north Cork, heard how he also played a key role in the early days of the MSC order.

Dr Twohig, from Castlemagner, near Mallow, was in Cork last week to launch his book, Late But Not Too Late - a two-volume history of the MSC in Britain and Ireland between 1877 and 1940.

“It is hoped that readers will be led to admire and appreciate the generosity and esprit de corps of those who followed Chevalier and Neenan,” Dr Twohig said.

Shortly after ordination, Dr Twohig studied in Rome and at Oxford. He lectured in a number of Irish MSC seminaries before he went to Papua New Guinea to open a major seminary. In 1970, he returned to Europe where he lectured in theology in England before he went to Oxford Brookes University as chaplain.