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St. Patrick and Nigeria: The Irish influence on an African country’s Catholic mission

In 1961, the same day Ireland opened its embassy in Lagos—the first in Africa—Irish bishops in Nigeria named St. Patrick as the country’s patron saint.

Left: Stained glass image of St. Patrick in Saint Patrick Catholic Church in Junction City, Ohio (Wikipedia); right: St. Patrick's Cathedral, Awka, Nigeria (Wikipedia)

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – On March 17, the world celebrated St. Patrick’s Day. Also known as Feast of St. Patrick, the date marks the commemoration of the Irish patron saint’s death and the role he played in bringing Christianity to Ireland. Although this year’s celebration and fun-fare marking the day was cancelled as a result of the Corona pandemic sweeping across the world, millions of people especially Catholics used different means to celebrate the day with pictures and nice quotes.

Unlike in Ireland, St Patrick’s day is not an official public holiday in Nigeria. There is no parade or carnival of any sort but Catholics attend Mass in their parishes and dioceses where he is celebrated as the second patron saint of Nigeria. In a Catholic daily reflection handbook for Mass in the month of March, Fr. Victor Nwabueze described St. Patrick as one who “left everything to follow Christ, to be a fisher of men.”

“We too are called to leave everything behind to follow Christ in fishing for men and women,” he says.

In 1961, the same day Ireland opened its embassy in Lagos—the first in Africa—Irish bishops in Nigeria named St. Patrick as the country’s patron saint. Each year, celebrations for the day are held at the embassy of Ireland with music, food, and drinks with friends and members of the diplomatic corps.

Bishop Shanahan and Irish influence

Irish influences run through nearly every level of the Catholic church in Nigeria. Ireland has a long, enduring history with Nigeria, including its role and political alliance during the 1967 civil war, but especially in the work of the Holy Ghost Fathers, the Irish Catholic missionaries who came to Nigeria in the early 20th century and established schools and hospitals and other community development legacies. Many Catholic establishments in Nigeria today were named in memory of early Irish missionaries who came to Nigeria starting in the 1880s.

For instance, Bishop Shanahan hospital and a nursing school which is run by the Catholic diocese of Nsukka in Enugu state, Southeast Nigeria was named after Bishop Joseph Shanahan  (1871–1943), an Irish-born priest of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit who served as bishop in Nigeria’s Southeast region.

Bishop Shanahan, who first journeyed to Nigeria in 1920, was so loved in Nigeria that his remains were brought back to the country 13 years after his death in 1943 in Nairobi, Kenya, for a second internment at the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity in Onitsha.

In Enugu state, Southeast Nigeria, the presence and influence of the Irish missionaries is still felt presently. The first Catholic priest in the region, John Cross Anyogu was ordained by Shanahan in 1930. He later became the first bishop in 1957 of Enugu diocese which was created in 1963, and was influenced by his early studies in Ireland.

“You can see their impact in the Catholic church in Nigeria everywhere you go,” says Fr. Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua, executive secretary of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council. “Many of the schools, hospitals you see today were established by Irish missionaries who journeyed to Nigeria for the spread of the gospel.”

“In their early days, they worked in local communities with poor road networks and infrastructure to provide for their spiritual and material needs,” he says.

Contribution to missions in Nigeria

Presently, a lot of Irish missions, orders for priests, and congregations for sisters exist in Nigeria – some dating back to early 1900s. In the early 1920s, Irish priests of the Order of the holy Ghost established their mission in southern part of Nigeria. Later, St. Patrick’s Society for Foreign Missions, dedicated on March 17, 1932, became one of many Catholic groups in Nigeria providing education both religious and secular.

“They contributed greatly to building the Catholic faith across the country,” says Fr. Aniedi Okure, the director of the Africa Faith and Justice Network [AFJN]. “They came from a country that had been colonized by the British so they have experienced it although not in the same fashion like we had in Nigeria.”

Okure told the Catholic Herald that there was an existing suspicion between the Irish missionaries and colonial masters at that time. This, he said, was because the British government was largely protestant Anglicans while the Irish were mainly Catholics.

“With that suspicion in mind, they were concerned about being outside the colonial government enterprise,” he says. “They rather settled to educating Nigerians, building hospitals and building social service centres. The type of education they provided enabled them to understand colonial mindsets because those that were trained by the British were trained to centre into the low-level administration of the colonial system like clerks and messengers.”

In July 1988, an Irish missionary, Fr. Charles Nowell arrived in Nigeria and soon after introduced the Discalced Carmelite Order to Nigeria. The society has grown, with many Carmelite priests and societies in Nigeria. And when he died, to fulfill his wish, he was buried at Mount Tabor Carmelite Community, Onuiyi, Nsukka.

“They created a supra-ethnic community that linked people from many ethnic groups into a faith community to see themselves as one,” Okure says.

One of the cultural aspects that many Nigerians, especially the young millennials, don’t realize is that Guinness beer and other brands including Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Origin, Malta Guinness, Satzenbrau are all Irish products. Some years ago, Nigeria surpassed Ireland in Guinness sales, making the country the world’s largest consumer of the product.

In 2010, it was estimated that 12.6% of the then-158 million Nigerians were Catholic; the population of the country now exceeds 200 million, making it the most populated country in all of Africa.

For Omonokhua and Okure, the early Irish missionaries set a strong faith foundation and left lasting legacies which “will continue to endure in communities they worked.”


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About Patrick Egwu 14 Articles
Patrick Egwu is an award-winning freelance journalist based in Nigeria who reports on global health, education, religion, conflict and other development issues in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa.

7 Comments

  1. How has the inner Celtic spiritual nature of the romantic and poet in the Irish bishops and clergy become so small and stayed before His vibrating heart of Truth and love?

    Was it stifled, while the best of them, the idealists were succumbed by the rational of the elite and sent to evangelize on far distant shores, who then contributed so much to the missionary spirit?

    To-day where are the courageous hearts that will come off the fence to confront the reality of this ongoing situation, that is one of abhorrent dishonesty before God and mankind, manifest by the elite colluding with blasphemy (The present Divine Mercy image) In God’s house, and on-going unaccountability for scandals emanating from the authority of Rome.

    Can the Irish leadership be a missionary leadership and recapture the dynamism of those idealists who left her shores, and now actual lead the church forward into a new dawn, and be the catalyst for change?
    Can the zing of the Christian hymn once again sing within Celtic hearts?

    How interesting that Guinness (Beer/Stout) the most iconic named drink within Irish culture is now culturized and drunk more frequently in Nigeria than any other country on earth.

    Eight years old, “ Grandar” where doe’s one find the Leprechaun’s gold
    The black Leprechaun holds the key, come over here and sit upon my knee
    I keep him in this bottle, he wears a mushroom cap and he is very, very black
    But you told me that he was green and that I would find him in the woods with the fairy Queen.
    That’s true son that’s the story that I told a wish he will give you or his pot of gold
    I caught him by the Shannon when I was a lad and put him in this bottle that belonged to my old dad
    I did not take his gold, so he promised to comfort me until I was old
    My black brother in this bottle will come and stay; you can take a little taste of him every day
    A glad heart is better than gold, take this magic drink and you will never feel old
    And now every night, just after tea, he keeps his promise and visits me
    “Can I have a taste of the black Leprechaun”?
    You cannot be an Irishman until you know his form
    He will warm your heart from dusk to dawn, but you may feel a little cold when he leaves you later in the morn
    “Fetch my glass from the shelf upon the wall”.
    Say something about strong and stout, while pouring Blacky gentle out
    Careful now he’s a lively little chap
    Two spoons of sugar, Blacky nearly lost his cap
    I began to feel happy, then rather warm, finding the magic of the black Leprechaun.

    kevin your brother
    In Christ

      • Thank you, JT, for your comment I am more than happy to give you a personal apology if you personally found my post inappropriate. I normally take my que from the moderator/s who control the postings on the site, if a post is not accepted, I consider why it was not. I am relatively new to the site, I have not noticed your Initials JT before and I assume that you are not one of the Moderators, nevertheless I will take your comment onboard and reflect upon it.
        Sincerely
        kevin your brother
        In Christ

        • Addendum to my post. Having now reflected upon your comment JT my Discus records show that I once responded to a post of yours on 1P5 about a year ago, although we did not enter into a dialogue. The drinking of Alcohol in Irish culture has been the ruin of many good men including priests down through the ages and so yes, this abuse of alcohol is no laughing matter.

          That said Ireland was known as the poorest country in Europe for centuries , living conditions were harsh (Potato famine, British rule, etc), it could be said that humour is a strong trait embedded within Irish culture, if the people did not laugh at adversity, they would have surely cried continually, we see this realty in the custom of having a Wake, where eating and drinking and laughter often take place.

          As Christians we should take comfort in Trust in the Lord but we have to acknowledge that not everyone is a Puritan (As in not making merry at Christmas time etc) including many of those valiant (Catholic priests) who left Ireland’s shores and contributed so much to the Missionaries in distant lands.

          kevin your brother
          In Christ

  2. I have been wondering why to fulfill a carear like,becoming a priest,a missionary or a monk in nigeria seems to be hard.is it right for people to pay to learn philosophy,or going to seminary school now is more cost than going to university,so people who come from poor home will not archive their aim again?.me i wished to become a catholic priest someday,but nobody is there to stand for me so should i stay and let my call and the fire in me to die?.hmmmmm

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