Funeral to take place on Friday of Fr Malachy McBride

Fr Malachy McBride, a retired superior general of the Salvatorian Fathers who spent the final years of his life in Buncrana, has been described as “an exceptional human being and a most exceptional priest”.

Fr McBride passed away on Friday at Nazareth House, Fahan the age of 94.

He is lying in state at St Mary’s Church in Cockhill until his funeral on Friday which is to be attended by members of the Salvatorian Fathers from around the world.

Fr Francis Bradley, parish priest at Cockhill, said Fr McBride, who lived at Upper Slavery, had “made Buncrana his home and loved it here so much so that will be buried here, just as he hoped he would”.

He was a revered leader of his order and “was respected in so many ways”.

Born in Belfast in 1927, he had given seventy years of his life to the Salvatorian Fathers, a German religious order involved in education and healthcare.

The eldest of a large family, he studied at Saint Malachy’s College. Despite suffering bouts of serious illness as a child, he studied for the Salvatorian.

He worked in parishes, taught in schools and third-level colleges, was the provincial superior of the order in Britain and Ireland and for seven years was the order’s superior general in Rome.

“His kind and optimistic nature, never judgemental, was his abiding gift to the order. He travelled extensively and spoke as many as twelve languages. He had a great mind, but an even greater soul,” Fr Bradley said.

“Here, in Buncrana, together with his housekeeper, Imelda, he was a most gracious host and a wonderful table guest. His stories were epic; his memory faultless and his humour divine. He was a most engaging preacher - brief and clear.”

Fr Malachy’s Requiem Mass will be celebrated on Friday, November 25 at 12 noon followed by interment in the priests’ plot in the adjoining cemetery.