Patrick McGarry was born on February 8, 1922, in Sheegora, Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland, which is located almost exactly in the geo- graphical center of the Republic of Ireland. He was the third child of seven: six sons and one daughter, of John and Bridget Walsh McGarry. He was born in a farmhouse that was built from the local stones that litter the Irish countryside, on property that his father and grandfather had tilled as their vocation and sole source of income.

Patrick McGarry attended Deerpark National School in Boyle for his primary and secondary education. That was followed by two years at Saint Kieran's College in Bray, County Wicklow, a teacher-training college, where he developed an interest in and studied Gaelic. In September 1942, he began teaching in a government primary school, but his desire for adventure and new horizons, which was to be one of his outstanding traits during his life, began to dominate his thinking. During a long school holiday in 1943, he travelled to Dublin to see about the possibility of emigrating to the United States where several of his relatives were settled and prospering. Because of the war, however, no one was being allowed to emigrate. But the officials at the American Embassy agreed to place his name on a waiting list of Irish citizens hoping to go to America, and he returned to his teaching job in Boyle. Early in 1946, he was informed that he could emigrate and so he was

with the first group of Irish citizens to immigrate to America after the end of World War II.

In the United States, Patrick was received by an uncle and his wife in New Jersey. Within a few days he had found a clerical job and was soon able to rent his own place and purchase a used Chevrolet car. He was granted American citizenship in May 1953.

In 1952, he had joined the Brothers of the Good Shepherd in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but departed from this community because he felt he was not well prepared for their religious life and ministry. He again found work, and during vacations travelled to various cities in an effort to learn more about his new country. In August 1954, his annual journey took him to Minneapolis, where he happened to attend Sunday Mass in a Dominican parish and heard a sermon by Father Vincent Kienberger. After Mass, he talked with this Dominican priest and, through subsequent correspondence with him and contact with other Dominicans, was able to discern that he had a vocation to the Dominican Order as a cooperator brother. He entered the Order, receiving the habit and his religious name of Columba, on March 24, 1955.

Following his novitiate at the Dominican House of Studies in River Forest, Illinois, and his first profession there on March 25, 1956, Brother Columba was assigned to general maintenance and office work at St. Anthony of Padua Priory in New Orleans, Louisiana, from 1956 to 1959; at St. Rose Priory in Dubuque, Iowa, from 1959 to1962; at Fenwick High School in Oak Park, Illinois, from 1962 to 1964; and as sacristan at Holy Rosary Priory and Parish, Minneapolis, Minnesota, from 1964 to 1968.

When he expressed interest in serving the missions, Brother Columba was sent to Nigeria, arriving in Gusau in September 1968. His first seven years in Nigeria centered around Gusau. His former teaching experience made him an excellent catechist and religious doctrine teacher, while his accounting ability was put to good use in the position of business manager of the parish and community. In 1969, he also assisted in reopening the parish in Katsina, which had been closed since 1966 because of the civil war.

In 1976, Brother Columba enrolled in a continuing education course in Lagos, the "T.I.M.E. Project," which qualified him to teach religious subjects in secondary schools in Nigeria. From 1977 to 1980, he taught in several schools in Sokoto City.

In 1980, Brother was assigned to the Dominican Priory in Ibadan and as economic administrator of the community. He also developed a course on the history of the Dominican Order which he taught to most of the Dominican brothers now in formation. Columba made a significant contribution to the young Vice-Province of Nigeria by teaching the Constitutions to the students and by helping them to improve their knowledge and use of English, since English is generally their second or third language. In 1986, he was appointed Assistant Director of Novices. In keeping with his strong devotion to our Lady, he published a small booklet, entitled "Meditations on the Rosary," in 1982, with original drawings by one of the Nigerian students.

Columba's infrequent visits to his homeland in Ireland were to see his aged father and

his brothers (his sister married and moved to England), to repaint or whitewash the cottage where he had grown up, and to arrange for a "station" Mass at the homestead.

On March 2, 1988, while travelling from Ibadan to Yaba, Brother Columba was fatally injured in a tragic automobile accident when the student who was driving fell asleep at the wheel. He was highly honored by being given an African wake service, and two Masses of the Resurrection, one celebrated by Bishop Job in Ibadan, and the other by Archbishop Okogie of Lagos, with over fifty Dominicans in attendance. He was buried in Atan Cemetery, near St. Dominic's Church in Yaba, Lagos State, on March 9, 1988.

In the words of a Nigerian saying which caught Brother Columba's fancy shortly after he began working at Katsina, "he was a wonderful Somebody."