Tony Hardiman OFM, RIP

Our brother Tony went home peacefully to God on Thursday 23rd October. He was 88 years old.

Born and raised in Athlone, he was a boarder in the Seraphic College in Multyfarnham, Co Westmeath.

He joined the friars in 1956, going to Killarney as a novice that year. After his First Profession of Vows he studied in Galway and Rome, where he was ordained in 1964.

The following year he joined the Irish Franciscan mission in South Africa. He was to spend his life there, chiefly in the Diocese of Kokstad, serving in various missions and parishes over the decades.

Tony returned from South Africa in December 2017 and was appointed to Cork friary after medical treatment in Galway. With a deterioration in his health he went to live in the nursing home in Multyfarnham in late 2023 so as to be closer to his family.

His Funeral Mass took place in his beloved Multyfarnham friary, and he was laid to rest in the Franciscan plot there.

"Well done, good and faithful servant."