Summer 2012 - The Mill Hill Missionaries

Summer 2012 Advocate:Layout 1 19/07/2012 12:14 Page 20FR. DENIS TREACY40 YEARS - Ruby JubileeFr. Denis Treacy is from Inistioge, Co. Kilkenny. He followed theusual route for most of our Irish Mill Hill members, going to Freshfordfor his secondary education, then to Dublin for philosophy, and to MillHill, London for theology. He was ordained (together with his classmatethe late Fr. John Wren) on June 18th 1972, in St. Mary’s Church,Irishtown, Clonmel. He was appointed to Kenya, where he worked inKisii Diocese for many years – in the parishes of Nyamagwa, Sengera and Magwagwa – aparish that he set up in 1998. He also spent eight years on the staff of St. John’s Junior Seminary,Rakwaro. He was appointed Vocations Director for Kenya in 2000, and was thus involvedin the recruitment of a number of the next generation of Mill Hill Missionaries. He moved onfrom this work to take up pastoral work in the parish of Tarasaa, in the diocese of Malindi - inthe Tana River Delta area of Kenya at the coast. He returned home in 2009 and was appointedto work on Appeals for APF-Mill Hill in England. This work brings him to parishes in BrenwoodDiocese in Essex and Northampton Diocese. There is a lot of travelling involved, butDenis enjoys being out and about, meeting the many faithful supporters of the Mill Hill Missionariesand the ‘Association for the Propagation of the Faith’. He is always more than happywhen he meets Kilkenny people on his travels.We congratulate all our Jubilarians, as they celebrate many years of missionary service in: Borneo,the Philippines, Uganda, Kenya, Sudan, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo(Zaire), and not fogetting the great work that some of them have done in Ireland, England andthe United States of America.FR. DENIS O’CONNOR40 Years - Ruby JubileeFr. Denis O’Connor is from Kilmoyley, Ardfert, Co. Kerry. His fatherran the family farm, while his mother ran a country shop. Denis wasrecruited fro Mill Hill by Fr. Terry Lee, who visited the schools in Kerryin 1959. He followed the usual route of most Mill Hill people, goingthrough Freshford, Dublin and St. Joseph’s College, Mill Hill, London.He was ardained on the 17th of September 1972, in ‘Our Lady and St.Brendan’s Chruch, Tralee. He was appointed to the Diocese of Kisumu, Kenya, where in ministeredin a number of parishes, but spent many years in the parishes of Port Victoria and Sirimba– an area that was the gulag of the Diocese, as he describes it!After twenty five years of missionary work in Kenya, Denis was appointed to the England, towork on mission appeals for APF-Mill Hill, covering a number of diocese: Shrewsbury, Birmingham,Cardiff and Menevia. He now resides in Birmingham and in addition to his APF-MillHill work, he is chaplain to a large catholic secondary school, and to St. Joseph’s Nursing andCare-Home, which is run by the ‘Little Sisters of the Poor’. He is in his fifteenth year on MissionPromotion and Appeals and derives great satisfaction from this important work.19