Irish birth record, https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/files/civil/birth_returns/births_1891/02385/1889950.pdf: "Superintendent Registrar's District Scariff, Registrar's District Feakle. Births Registered in the District of Feakle in the Union of Scariff in the County of Clare. No. 233. On 14 May 1891 at Feakle, birth of Timothy, male, father James Moloney of Feakle, farmer, mother Anne Moloney formerly Rochford; informant: James Moloney, father, of Feakle; 18 May 1891."

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Fr Denis W. Martin, Priests of 1928, Brisbane, 2003, pp 23-27:
Mons. Timothy Molony

When he took his seat for this photo, the dour faced Timothy Molony had been Administrator of the Cathedral for four years. He was still living at Dara but not for much longer: in the 1949 Hennessy v. Duhig case before the Full Court he stated, 'I was the last to sleep in old Dara on 9th March 1928, then I saw it fall on the morning of 19th March'.

Tim was a County Clare man ordained 'for the Diocese of Perth' at Genoa in 1917. Due to wartime travelling restrictions, he was unable to sail for Australia so returned to Ireland to work in a Dublin parish. In the following year, he voyaged by a troopship then was met in Brisbane at the railway station by the Archbishop's car. He was to work closely with JD for nearly 50 years.

To enable him to get around the parish of Ipswich Rd., Annerley, which included the bushy districts of Darra and Woodridge, he bought a motorbike. In 1920, when transferred to Charleville he was presented with a send-off gift of £240. This enabled him to buy a model T Ford. It came in handy, for soon afterwards Archbishop Duhig visited Charleville and Tim drove him round the huge area that was called a parish.

Thereafter, promotion came fast: he was made Parish Priest of Charleville in 1921, then Administrator of St Stephen's from 1923 until 1935. He accompanied the Archbishop on a trip to the United States and Rome in 1927 and was made Vicar General in 1929.

In 1944 while Parish Priest of Gympie, Tim was made a Domestic Prelate. For the next 32 years this powerful figure in the Archdiocese was always 'Mons. Molony'. His final appointment was to Ipswich in 1951.

His memory was still sharp as the following tale will illustrate. Tim remembered that there had always been at the Ipswich Presbytery a beautiful Waterford crystal set of glassware, which included decanters, etc. and on each piece was etched 'A H', the initials of Andrew Horan. When he arrived at the Presbytery, he noticed that they were missing! A brief investigation revealed that soon after Mgr Baldwin had died, the Coadjutor Archbishop O'Donnell who had a taste for such fine things made a visit to Ipswich and departed with the elegant glassware carefully packed on the back seat of his car. Tim phoned the Coadjutor and the 'AH' crystal was soon back in its old home.

The crystal was used on a Monday, for example, when the Mayor of Ipswich, Ald. Finimore, came to lunch. Tim could sit there looking dignified even though his shoes and socks had been discarded under the table for comfort. He was a distinguished figure wearing his purple stock as he drove his black Holden into town.

He was a solemn figure at the Board meetings at Wynberg. All prospective students for Banyo Seminary will remember the experience of being interviewed in the Gold Room at Wynberg and appearing before that august body of Monsignori. Tim Molony seemed to be most concerned with Senior Latin results.

The liturgical changes of Vatican II were not encouraged at Ipswich, so the curates had to struggle to abide by the regulations on the introduction of English into the Mass. Or they might be asked at the table, 'Where's your collar?' Other changes worried him too - he noticed that devotion to St Michael the Archangel was on the wane and that confessions were falling off, asking 'Is there no more sin?'

In 1973 or so the complete staff went out on strike for some time at the Wolston Park Mental Hospital, Goodna. Volunteers went in to help with meals and getting the patients bathed, into bed, etc. Among them was Mons. Molony then aged 82. It was a generous gesture and little wonder that a photograph of him dispensing medication appeared in the local press. Another photograph taken at about the same time captured him bowling the first ball on the new 'Timothy Molony Oval' in front of St Mary's Church.

He almost left his last visit to his homeland too late. At the age of 84 he bravely set off on his own. It was on the return trip that he became disoriented. He left the plane at Sydney. Fortunately a taxi driver realised something was wrong and took him to St Mary's Cathedral where a phone call and forwarding arrangements were made.

Mons. Molony retired as Parish Priest at the end of 1975, but continued to live in the flat beside the Ipswich Presbytery. But old habits clung. He continued to make his way to the confessional and sat there all day waiting for customers. His devoted parishioner 'Ronnie' ended up having to take his meals over there on a tray to him. It became a worry for his successor, Dr O K Oxenham, but not an enduring one.

T M was admitted to Canossa Ho pital at Oxley where he died a month later on 17th June 1976. His funeral left St Mary's and burial took place at the Warrill Park Lawn Cemetery outside Ipswich.

He was a long serving and loyal figure in the Archdiocese as well as a revered Parish Priest. Although not intellectually brilliant he was always guided by tact, common sense, and the belief that silence was better than swagger. Tom Boland described him as 'stony faced'. He recalled an occasion when, during a solemn ceremony in the Cathedral, Tim Molony and Leo Carlton were seated, one on each side of the Archbishop and looking none too happy about it. It was noticed down among the body of the clergy in the front seats, for the dry, sardonic drawl of Jim Cullen was heard for their amusement only, 'Molony and Carlton have missed their vocations - they should have been undertakers.'

(Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Martin.)

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Prayer Calendar: Deceased Priests who have ministered the Catholic Faith throughout Toowoomba and districts, 1864–2025, Compiled by Annie Carrett, Diocesan Archivist, 2001, Updated by Gabrielle Saide, Diocesan Archivist, 2023:
Rt Rev Monsignor Timothy Molony, died 17 June 1976

Timothy Moloney was born at Feakle, Co. Clare, Ireland, on 14th May, 1891. (A sister of his became a nun). He was educated at St Flannan's College, Ennis, before commencing studies for the priesthood, first at All Hallows, and then at Collegio Brignole, Sale, Genoa. He was ordained Priest for the Archdiocese of Perth on 15th July, 1917. World War I delayed his departure for Australia, and while he was awaiting passage, the Archbishop of Dublin appointed him as Assistant Priest at City Quay, a Parish on the Liffey. He finally sailed on 11th February, 1918, and arrived in April, as Chaplain to the troopship "Llanstephan Castle" which was returning from the First World War. He left the ship in Melbourne and traveled on to Brisbane by train. As a Priest of the Brisbane Archdiocese he served in the following positions: Assistant Priest, Annerley (1918-20); Charleville (1921-23); Administrator of St Stephen's Cathedral (1923-25); Parish Priest, Gympie (1935-51) and Ipswich (1951-75). Charleville Parish, at the time he was there, covered 98,000 square miles, or 'three times larger than Ireland'. He used to travel about his Parish in a Model-T Ford. Most of his memories of the time consisted of flooded creeks and of getting bogged, getting bushed and getting stuck on the rough bullock-cart tracks. On 8th December, 1929, he was appointed Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Brisbane, and in 1944, Pope Pius XII named him Domestic Prelate with the title of Monsignor. He retired as Parish Priest of Ipswich at the end of 1975, but continued to live there. He died a year later and is buried in Ipswich. At the time of his death he was the longest serving Priest of the Archdiocese of Brisbane.
(Ref. Brisbane Archives)

Reproduced by permission of Bishop Ken Howell.