Late Fr. Bob Arthure PE.

 
When a person lives into their 90’s it can be said that they had a good life. This could well be said of Fr. Robert (Bob) Arthure P.E. who died recently in Cappoquin.

Fr. Bob at the time of his death was in his 96^th year and was weeks away from celebrating the Platinum Jubilee (70 Anniversary) of his ordination to the priesthood.

Growing up in Lismore, a young Bob Arthure when to school locally at the Christian Brothers School and it could well be said that for much of his time at the school he had no serious intentions of becoming a priest, but by the time he finished school in 1943, he knew that this is what he wanted to do in life, a vocation that he would share with his uncle (his mother Maura brother was a priest in England).

In September 1943 he began his studies to be a priest at St. John’s College seminary in Waterford where he was one of over 100 students studying to be a priest across the English speaking world, but towards the end of his first year at the college he asked to be transferred to the seminary at Maynooth and became one of three seminarians from his class from the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore, the other two been Gregory Power who died in 2019 and Dan O’Connor who resides in retirement in Dungarvan.

In Maynooth he was one of 70 students to enter the seminary on the one day and one of over 400 in total at the college at the time. He was ordained on June 17, 1951 by the then Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid. Others to be ordained with him that day were the future Archbishop of Dublin the late Cardinal Desmond Conell and the former Bishop of Kerry and of Galway Eamonn Casey.

Fr. Bob because of the large amount of priests available to the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore was sent to South Shields in the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle where he served until he was recalled by Bishop Daniel Coughlan in 1955.

On his return to Ireland he was appointed a Chaplain at Faithlegg House which at the time was a junior novitiate for the De La Salle brothers. He would later serve as a curate in the parishes of Ballybricken in Waterford City then at Kill, Carrick-on-Suir and Cappoquin. He was to spend just a short while in the latter parish before Bishop Michael Russell would appoint him a Parish Priest.

His first posting as a Parish Priest was to be at the parish of Kilrossanty and Fews. He would later serve in Portlaw and Ballyduff and later in Ballyporeen in South Tipperary.

Fr. Bob’s next appointment was to be to a familiar area as he was sent back to Cappoquin where he would administer for the remainder of his priestly life.

He retired as a Parish Priest in 2001 having reached the age of 75, the age where priests are asked to submit their intention to retire to their Bishop, but Bishop William Lee allowed Fr Bob to remain in ministry as was his wish as an Assistant Priest in Cappoquin.

Any hope for a quite life however were to be dashed. The number of men going forward to study for the priesthood had dropped radically since Fr. Bob first entered the seminary and when there was no available priest to be posted in the neighbouring parish of Modeligo and Affane it became administered from Cappoquin, increasing the workload of the priests of the parish.

Fr. Bob remained in Cappoquin until the arrival of the Coronavirus in Ireland. In advanced years Fr. Bob was asked by family members to go live with them, but he was going to have none of it. He wanted to stay locally and when the opportunity arose to move in with the Cistercian Community of Sisters at St. Mary’s Abbey outside Lismore Fr. Bob jumped at the chance.

Fr. Bob for a number of years wrote a short reflective piece each week for the Dungarvan Observer, but in Glencairn he found a new way to connect with people, as with the help of the community in which he lived, a Facebook page was set up and he had over 600 followers who he kept in touch with some of his informative writings.

Over his seventy years as a priest Fr. Bob had a great way of connecting with people. He believed that it was his job as a priest to serve the people in the areas where he worked both in their joys and their sorrows.

He helped people to celebrate the tried sacraments with the people and when it came to times of baptisms, weddings and funerals, he firmly believed that they were all personal occasions for the families involved and he would work with the families as much as was possible to make the occasions unique and personal as possible.

Like with many priests he loved to visit the people that were sick and would visit them in their own homes. He also made himself available to people that were in any sort of trouble and to those that might be lonely and needed someone to talk to.

Fr. Bob died at the Padre Pio rest home in Cappoquin where he moved shortly before he died. On the evening of his death he returned to the Cistercian Community in Glencairn which was his home for the past thirteen months. In the presence of the community of sisters a prayer service was held in the presence of his family and the community conducted by Fr. Michael Cullinan PP Lismore and Ballysaggart with Dom Richard Purcell O.S.C.O the Abbot of Mount Melleray Abbey also in attendance.

On the night before he was buried he was brought from Walsh’s Funeral Home in Cappoquin where prayers were once again said by Fr. Michael Cullinan through the town where many people came out of their homes to stand in silence as Fr. Bob passed through on his way to the church in Cappoquin where his remains were received by Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore and where he would spend the night.

His funeral mass was celebrated by Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, assisted by Bishop William Lee Bishop Emeritus of Waterford and Lismore, Fr. Nicholas O’Mahony V.G. PP, Fr. William Ryan V.G. PP, Fr. Michael Cullinan PP, Fr. Pat Butler PP, Fr. Patrick Ryan O.S.C.O representing the Cistercian Community at Mount Melleray and Fr. Michael McCullough, a Vincentian known to Fr. Bob.

After Mass and one final journey through the town including a stop at the local National School where a Guard of Honour was formed by Children and Staff, Fr. Bob was brought to St. Declan’s Cemetery where he was laid to rest with the Clergy, Sisters Marie, Eleanor and Mary from the Cistercian Convent at Glencairn and a small number of close friends and family present.