By Jonathan Ugbal Follow @NaijaJonathan
A popular Irish Catholic priest in the order of St. Patrick’s missionary who served in the Ogoja Catholic diocese, Rev. Fr. Jim English has died at the age of 69.
He died on April 12, 2018 five months to his 70th birthday.
Fr. English served as Parish Priest in St. Charles Borromeo Catholic church in Obudu for a long time where he is popular for his funny accent and planting oil palms within the precincts of the land donated to the church before he was transferred to Ogoja.
At Ogoja, Fr. English served at the St. Benedict’s Cathedral before he was transferred to Lagos where his last place of assignment was at the St. Joseph’s Catholic church in Kirikiri area before departing for Ireland in 2011 after serving for forty six years in Nigeria.
Born in Newport town in the County Tipperary in September 1938, “Fr. English went to Kiltegan in September 1958 and was ordained on Easter Sunday 1965,” said the St. Patrick’s Missionary Society in a Facebook post.
“He was appointed to Nigeria and worked there for the next forty six years. He retired to Ireland in July 2011 and came to live at Kiltegan (where) He died peacefully on the 12th of April 2018,” the society added.
The society also added in Irish; “Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam uasal” which loosely translates as “may his noble soul sit on the right side of God.”