J ohn P. O’Brien was born in Donamon, Co. Roscommon, Ireland, on December 1, 1918. He wrote the following letter to Fr. John Blowick, Director of the Columban Fathers, on June 5, 1936.
Dear Revd Father,
I am sitting for matriculation in a few weeks and I intend, if successful, to enter Dalgan College as a student in preparation for the priesthood.
Fr. John was successful and became a probationer in the Columbans in September 1936, and was ordained a priest on December 21, 1942. Since World War II prevented him from going to the foreign mission, he volunteered as a military chaplainand in October 1943 reported the following to Fr. Michael O’Dwyer, the Columban Superior General.
I have received word from Mons. J. Coghlan regarding my application as chaplain. I have to report in Northern Ireland on November 2.
Fr. John was attached to the 2nd Battalion, Royal Ulster Rifles and went ashore in Normandy with them on D-Day, June 6, 1944. He was pleased to find that most of the men were Catholics “and very good ones too”. In August he reported that Columban Fr. Patrick McMahon was killed in France, and on November 4 described the campaign in France, Belgium and Holland:
My battalion has been in action continually since D-Day. They have been through the heaviest fighting in France and also in Holland. Our casualties have been very heavy indeed and I need not tell you that there are very few of the original lot left. As for myself during this period I have been very lucky. The men all say I have a charmed life and say that I must be “well in” with my boss.
In March 1945 his Columban “boss,” Fr. Michael O’Dwyer, instructed him to obtain his release from the army, but younger men like him were requested to serve a further year or even two years. He stayed with the Royal Ulster Battalion in Germany. They were transferred to Egypt in October and then to Palestine. He told Fr. O’Dwyer:
The political situation at the moment here is very tense and the possibilities of widespread acts of terrorism, during the coming months, is felt everywhere. So far our troops here have met very little trouble. But there is an atmosphere of death everywhere. I am very happy here as I shall probably never get an opportunity again of visiting the Holy Places.
It wasn’t until May 31, 1948, that Columban Fr. Jeremiah Dennehy, the Superior General, appointed him to Mokpo in Korea. He left home on February 20, 1949.
The outbreak of the Korean War on June 25, 1950, found him in Mokpo with Monsignor Columban Pat Brennan and Columban Fr. Tom Cusack. He stayed with them when North Korean forces captured the town on July 24, and all three were imprisoned in Kwangju. Their captors put three U.S. soldiers in the cell in August. One, Lieutenant Alexander G. Makarounis, remembered how the monsignor would encourage Fr. John to do an Irish jig or sing a song. He had a good voice and the way he sang Bing Crosby’s hit “Far Away Places” “made you forget you were cooped up in a prison cell and sent your thoughts flying home.”
In August thirty-two prisoners, including the priests and the three soldiers were put in a broken-down truck to be transferred to a prisonerof- war camp near Seoul. The truck broke down completely seven miles from Daejon and the captives were forced to march at a very fast pace towards the city. Fr. John helped the wounded Makarounis. At the city they were separated. The lieutenant regretted that, “We never got a chance to say goodbye to the missionaries.”
On September 15, General Douglas McArthur led a U.N. army ashore at Inchon. Seoul was captured four days later. Northern Korean forces retreated to avoid being surrounded. Before leaving Daejon they massacred their prisoners. It is presumed that all three priests were killed on the night of September 24,1950.
Columban Fr. Neil Collins was ordained in 1962 and served on mission in the Philippines. He is History Coordinator for the Columbans and has published a number of books including, A Mad Thing to Do — A Century of Columban Missions (1916 - 2016). Fr. Neil died on October 17, 2024.