ONE of Donegal’s best-known priests has died in hospital in Italy.
Rev. Canon John Silke passed away after fighting illness for several months. He became unwell during a pilgrimage to Italy last year and never recovered.
Fr. Silke was born in Creeslough to John J and Susan (nee McGinley) Silke.
He was educated at Drimnaraw and Massinass National Schools and St.Eunan College Letterkenny.
He studied for the priesthood in Maynoooth College Co. Kildare and was ordained for the diocese of Raphoe in 1952. He later graduated with an MA and PhD in history from UCD and a H.Dip. Ed from Maynooth.
He taught history for almost a decade in St Eunan’s College before taking up third level teaching in the mid-1960s in the USA. where he taught at Harriman College and Manhattan College in New York.
Then he spent seven years in Rome and was archivist at the Pontifical Irish College there.
On his return to Raphoe, he became parish priest of Glenswilly and later assumed responsibility for the diocesan archives in Letterkenny.
His father John J Silke was a native of Paulstown, Co Kilkenny, came to Creeslough as an agricultural inspector, married a local girl, Susan McGinley from Feymore and had four boys (Michael, Paddy, Malachy and John) and two girls (Theresa and Mona). John J. bought a 30 acres farm from Funston who moved to the Lagan.
He built a new house and in 1925 moved his wife and three children Patrick, Malachy and Theresa into the new house Fr. John and Mona were born there. Mr Silke was also a farmer and put Creeslough on the map when he achieved a world record yield of seed potatoes with the Aran Banner potato which he had developed. He also became a potato exporter.
Dr John J Silke MA PhD was co-founder of the Columbia University Seminar on Irish Studies and was a former Senior Research Fellow at the Irish Institute in Queen’s University Belfast.
More recently he was Dean of the Cathedral Chapter of the Raphoe Diocese.
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