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Rev Joe Flannery

Title:

Rev

First Name:

Joseph

Middle Names:

Francis Vianney

Preferred Name:

Joe

Surname:

Flannery

Order:

Date of Birth:

Place of Birth:

Co Tipperary

Country of Birth:

Ireland

Date of Ordination:

1956

Place of Ordination:

Country of Ordination:

Ireland

Ordination Diocese:

Brisbane

Seminary:

St John's College, Waterford, Ireland

Date of Death:

27-Nov-2019

Place of Death:

Country of Death:

Date of Burial:

15-Dec-2019

Place of Burial:

Kilruane, Ardcrony, Co Tipperary

Country of Burial:

Ireland

Find A Grave URL:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/302326194

Appointments Table

Diocese
Place
Role
Start Day
Start Month
Start Year
End Day
End Month
End Year
Source
Brisbane CathedralAssistant Priest25Dec19561Jan1960Catholic Leader, 9 January 2020
Brisbane East BrisbaneParish PriestApr1980Catholic Leader, 9 January 2020
Brisbane Everton ParkParish PriestCatholic Leader, 9 January 2020
Items per page:
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Biographical Notes

Death notice, Courier-Mail, Brisbane, 4 December 2019:

Flannery, Reverend Father Joseph Francis Vianney
Priest of the Archdiocese of Brisbane
Late of Everton Park
Passed away peacefully Wednesday, 27th November at home.
Archbishop Mark Coleridge invites the Clergy, Religious and people of the Arch Archdiocese of Brisbane and all relatives and friends to participate in Requiem Mass for Father Joseph Flannery to be celebrated at Our Lady Of The Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, 18 Halle Street, Everton Park on Thursday, 5th December at 7pm.
All Welcome
Father Flannery will be buried at Kilruane Catholic Church, Kilruane, Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland at a later date.
May He Rest In Peace

---

Death notice, https://rip.ie/death-notice/frjoseph-flannery-tipperary-clonmel-390954:

The death has occurred of
Fr. Joseph Flannery
Late of Clonmel, Clonmel, Tipperary / Nenagh, Tipperary
Brisbane, Australia and formerly of Clonmel, Co. Tipperary. Retired Parish Priest of Everton Park Parish, Brisbane - November 27, 2019 predeceased by his sister, Mary Hillery, Clonmel and his brother, Canon John Flannery, Scotland; deeply regretted by his nieces, nephews, cousins, Archbishop, priest confreres and his many friends.
Rest in Peace
Requiem Mass will take place in Kilruane Church, Nenagh at 1.30 o'c. on Sunday, December 15. Burial afterwards in the Church grounds.
Date Published: Friday 13th December 2019
Date of Death: Wednesday 27th November 2019

---

Whether in Ireland or Brisbane, Fr Joe Flannery was all for God, by Joe Higgins, Catholic Leader, Brisbane, 9 January 2020, https://catholicleader.com.au/news/from-clonmel-to-brisbane-fr-joe-flannery-was-all-for-god/:

Brisbane received more than toys and candy canes for Christmas 1956; Irish-born Fr Joseph Francis Vianney Flannery arrived on Christmas Eve as a young priest in a foreign land and was sent straight to St Stephen's Cathedral.

He spent his first day in Brisbane's summer heat in the confessional, and served at the cathedral all day until midnight Mass.

This determination of service was characteristic of Fr Flannery.

He died on November 27, and was remembered as a great pastor and dear friend.

"Fr Joe's definite ideas formed his mission as a priest," Brisbane Auxiliary Bishop Ken Howell said at a memorial Mass.

"While he was intent on serving Christ, he understood that this meant holding the people Christ had entrusted to him always within his care.

"Those who have known him for all these years at Everton Park, and in East Brisbane, and a number of other places, would (I'm sure) look beyond his human imperfections, to see that his heart was firmly fixed on what he was ordained for.

"In the very best sense of the words, Joe Flannery was an 'old world' type of Irish priest, but there was nothing old world in his attention to God's people and ensuring that the Mass and sacraments were celebrated, and that the people were nourished by Christ through the ministry of their priest."

Bishop Howell said Fr Flannery lived a full life in two lands, but "now there is a homeland beyond Ireland and Brisbane that he has longed to find".

"The wheat grain has fallen on the ground and died through his life of sacrifice, hard work, compassion and forbearance," Bishop Howell said, referencing the Gospel reading (John 12:23-26). "Now is the time for the harvest, where the fruits of the offering of his life to Christ in a distant land are both seen and unseen.

"We will never know the full extent of what he has given and who has received from this offering of self. Christ knows, therefore we give Joseph over to his merciful embrace."

Fr Flannery was one of three children born to John Flannery and Mary O'Leary.

He schooled with the Christian Brothers in County Tipperary and studied at the Waterford Seminary in the Waterford and Lismore diocese, Ireland.

After he was ordained he was incardinated into the Brisbane archdiocese on December 29, 1956.

His first appointment in Brisbane archdiocese was as an assistant priest at St Stephen's Cathedral from December 25, 1956, to January 1, 1960.

Following this, Fr Flannery went on to serve as an assistant priest and administrator in a number of parishes, with his first appointment as a parish priest beginning at St Benedict's, East Brisbane, in April 1980.

He went on to become parish priest at the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Everton Park, and served there for almost 40 years.

In a remembrance piece, Rosalie Lewis said her family and Fr Flannery were very close and her parents treated him like a son.

"To my father's delight he (Fr Flannery) absolutely loved technology and the pair of them would fiddle with every gadget they found," she said. "He was always looking for items to repair.

"The age of computers was an absolute delight for him."

Mrs Lewis said he was over for Christmas lunch almost every year and officiated at her wedding and the weddings of her two sons, and baptised her grandchildren.

"Father Joe has been an inspiration to so many," she said. "He helped and supported countless numbers as he carried out his priestly duties.

"We are all the better to have known him."

She said she was at his first Mass in Brisbane, at Gregory Terrace almost 63 years ago, and was honoured to be at the memorial Mass to celebrate his life.

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