Fr Jack Donovan: FR JACK Donovan, who has died aged 77, worked in London for 40 years, volunteering for an East End parish that no other priest could handle.
A former parish priest had been convicted of child abuse, provoking understandable fury among the parishioners. In the true spirit of humility, Fr Donovan lived with the lingering hatred, anger and resistance of the parish.
Ultimately, the people learned to accept this quiet, intensely private Corkman, and he established a strong rapport with the community. One parishioner described him as a quiet, shy man with no outstanding achievements to his name, "but there is more love and hope and goodness in the world because of him".
At his funeral Mass, concelebrated by 24 priests, chief celebrant Msgr Armitage described him as a "very humble servant" and "low-maintenance man".
Born in 1931 in Woodford, Co Galway, he attended a lay secondary school in Kanturk, Co Cork. He was accepted at Mungret College, Limerick, for a year to complete his Leaving Cert. So that he and the Jesuits could become better acquainted the provincial, Tommy Byrne, paid his fees.
Big and strong, he made the senior rugby team as a second-row forward and lined out in the Munster colleges' cup final. He entered the Jesuit novitiate at Emo, Co Laois, in 1949, and Seán O'Donovan became Jack Donovan. In 1951, he took his first vows. An arts student at University College Dublin, he had a breakdown in his second year and could not continue his studies.
Between 1954 and 1957, he studied philosophy at Tullabeg, Co Offaly, and for the next three years taught at Belvedere College, Dublin. Very intelligent and widely read, he felt that 1950s Ireland was intellectually stifling - a view he held until the end of his days.
While he was at Belvedere, he volunteered for the Jesuit mission to Japan, but his application was neither accepted nor supported by the provincial, Luigi O'Grady.
He next studied theology at Milltown Park where, in 1963, he was ordained. Having completed his tertianship at Rathfarnham and served in Gardiner Street, in 1966 he returned to Rathfarnham for two years as assistant director of the Jesuit retreat house.
In 1968, he was assigned to work in London, and was initially based in Stamford Hill. He was then appointed to St Anne's parish in the East End. There he faced a difficult situation; his immediate predecessor as parish priest survived for only a few months. Volunteering to take over, he remained for 30 years. Members of the notorious Kray family, who lived locally, befriended him and made it known anyone who "messed with" Fr Donovan would answer to them.
By the late 1990s he had withdrawn into himself, and the church and presbytery showed signs of neglect. However, after moving into sheltered accommodation, he continued his pastoral work in St Margaret's parish.
He is survived by his brothers Michael, PJ, Fr Pádraig (Columban Father), Fr Richard Donovan OMI, sisters Kate and Sr Loyola RSM, sister-in-law Joan, members of the Society of Jesus and friends.
Fr Jack Donovan: born February 8th, 1931; died October 1st, 2008