THE BURIAL of Fr Donal O’Mahony, founder of the housing organisation Threshold, will take place in Cork today.
Fr O’Mahony, a Capuchin Franciscan friar, founded Threshold in 1978 after the archbishop of Dublin appointed him chaplain to Dublin’s flat-dwellers.
Chairwoman of Threshold, Aideen Hayden, said a huge number of flat-dwellers at the time were returned immigrants who had fallen through the cracks of Irish society.
Ms Hayden said Fr O’Mahony’s work “touched some of the most vulnerable people in Irish society”.
“He saw housing as a basic dignity. He understood that people didn’t just need a roof over their heads, they needed a home.”
Fr O’Mahony, who was a native of Blackrock in Cork city, joined the Capuchin order in 1958.
Working in inner-city parishes in Dublin sparked his interest in social justice and in 1978 he founded Threshold, an organisation with which he worked in an advisory capacity throughout his life.
Over the course of his career, Fr O’Mahony served as a mediator in a number of high-profile international kidnapping cases.
He also worked in Northern Ireland during the 1980s, engaging with paramilitaries on both sides to promote dialogue as an alternative to violence. In later years, he spent time in Rome as secretary general for justice, peace and ecology and also worked at Berkeley University in California.
He returned to Holy Trinity Capuchin Friary in Cork for a short time before moving to Pretoria in South Africa in 2003, where he taught Capuchin students.
Lance Thomas, country co-ordinator for the Damietta Initiative, a Franciscan Africa-wide peace initiative, last night described how Fr O’Mahony continued to return to Africa while being treated in Ireland for his illness.
A statement from the order described him as “a true gentleman.” He died in Cork on Saturday after what they described as “a characteristically brave fight.”
Requiem Mass for Fr O’Mahony will be concelebrated at the Holy Trinity Church, Cork, at noon today, followed by burial at the Capuchin Cemetery, Rochestown.
