Herrema recalls humility of priest who aided release

IRA kidnap victim Dr Tiede Herrema yesterday publicly acknowledged the humility of a priest who played a key role in his release 35 years ago.

The Dutch-born businessman said the passing of Fr Donal O’Mahony was a great loss.

The Cork-born priest was laid to rest in his home city yesterday.

He had acted as a mediator during the 1975 Monasterevin, Co Kildare, siege when IRA pair Eddie Gallagher and Marion Coyle abducted the Limerick factory owner.

“Fr O’ Mahony did not explain his role in the mediation of the kidnapping when I first met him,” 89-year-old Dr Herrema told presenter Joe Duffy yesterday.

“It was later that I heard what he had done; all the phone calls he had made to help me.

“He didn’t say so much about what he had done. He did his work and he did what he thought was necessary but he didn’t talk about it.

“He was very interesting and it was very nice that I had a chance to meet him. I appreciate everything he has done for me and my sympathy goes out to his family,” said Dr Herrema.

Capuchin Franciscan friars travelled from South Africa, South Korea and New Zealand to attend the funeral mass of Fr O’Mahony who was also the founder of the housing organisation Threshold.

Fr O’Mahony, 74, was a native of Blackrock in Cork city. On leaving school he joined the Irish Independent as a sports journalist for three years but found his “latent vocation” and embarked on a completely different path in life, becoming a member of the Capuchin order in 1958.

After ordination in 1966 he worked in Dublin’s inner city and after his dealings with flat dwellers, he helped found Threshold to deal with landlord and tenant matters. Threshold is now the National Housing Advisory Body.

At the requiem Mass in Holy Trinity Church in Cork, Fr Silvester O’Flynn said his lifelong friend, Fr O’Mahony, was a man who possessed extraordinary qualities.

“He was a man of extraordinary empathy. In Donal’s presence one was welcomed into a space of hospitality. He was a man of extraordinary wisdom.

“Threshold now is the recognised speaking voice for flat dwellers with up to 20,000 calls a year. He planted the seed and handed it over to others and let it grow,” said Fr O’Flynn.

The congregation heard of Fr O’Mahony’s vast achievements, particularly over the last 30 years.

In the 1980s he worked in the North engaging with paramilitaries on both sides to promote dialogue as an alternative to peace.

In his role as national chaplain of Pax Christi in Ireland and as a member of the international board based in Holland he made undercover visits to Iron Curtain countries before the fall of communism and the Berlin Wall.

He was appointed to Rome as secretary general of the Capuchin order for peace, justice and ecology, which necessitated him travelling to 94 countries over seven years.

Meanwhile, yesterday’s Mass was attended by among other representatives of Threshold, the general of the Order of the Friars Minor Capuchin, Fr Peter Rogers, and friars from Ethiopia and Spain.

Fr O’Mahony is survived by his sister Mary and brother-in-law Dom and his nieces Colette, Jane and Lisa.