Brother John Conway Remembered At Memorial Service In St John’s Park

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Attending the Memorial for Br John Conway were Sheila Conway, Paul McDonagh, Phil McDonagh, Phil Kelliher, Ann Sheehan, Eileen Tobin, Michael Conway, Fr Bernard Healy, Pat Tobin. Photo by Lisa O’Mahony.

A CROWD gathered at St John’s Park on Monday evening to remember Brother John Conway and his fellow missionaries who were killed with him in a guerrilla attack 40 years ago in Rhodesia.

The memorial was held at the monument dedicated to Br John in the estate. Family and friends of Br John opened the ceremony with a hymn, led by Father Bernard Healy. Edward McCarthy was responsible for organising the memorial for Br John and his fellow victims.

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He is remembered as a man of prayer and geniality, and worked relentlessly at the Rhodesian mission station of St Paul’s in Musami. He served there from 1954 until his death in 1977. At the time of his death, the mission included schools, a hospital, a farm and a social centre.

Brother John Conway.

In 1977, he was murdered in a guerilla attack on the mission he was assigned to.  He was teaching when armed men came to the mission station at about 8pm and rounded up four of the Jesuits (Br John and three English Jesuit priests) and four of the Dominican sisters (three Germans and one English) who worked there.

They were taken outside, lined up, and shot. The identity of those responsible for the attack has never been fully determined.

Phil McDonagh, first cousin of Br John, said that it was an awful shock at the time. She still holds on to all of her cousin’s belongings, which were sent to her in a case shortly after the tragedy.

They include the letters they wrote to him during his mission and photos of them together when they were young. A missionary, at the time, advised Phil to hold on to them and she still remembers what he said; “Things will be happening.”

It was a short but significant ceremony, one which showed the memory of the brave Tralee man will live on in his hometown.

Phil McDonagh attending the Memorial for her cousin, Brother John Conway. Photo by Lisa O’Mahony.