Priest who played significant role in teacher training

Although he had served less than six years as president and chief executive of Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Prof Michael A Hayes, who died at the age of 59 following a short illness, made significant progress in that brief time, greatly enhancing its academic life and dramatically increasing student numbers to almost 5,000, making it the "largest Catholic third-level college in the country".

Unsurprisingly, his untimely death has sent a shockwave through academia and led to a flood of tributes from fellow academics, the Tablet, an intellectual UK Catholic journal, as well as a member of the hierarchy who serves on the college board.

Part of a cohort of young priests who were told by Bishop Newman of Limerick that he “had no jobs for them”, he went to England and joined the Archdiocese of Southwark where Hayes worked as a priest for more than 30 years after his ordination, including a spell as chaplain to Roehampton University. While in the United Kingdom, his academic interests burgeoned and as well as qualifying as a psychotherapist, he began to make his mark in pastoral theology before becoming head of theology at the then St Mary’s College, Strawberry Hill.

Born in Limerick, he was educated at St Münchin’s College and went on to study at St Patrick’s pontifical College at Maynooth. He was ordained at Fedamore Church in 1980 before moving to the UK where he lived and worked until his return in 2011.

Tribute

Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick, chairperson of the trustees of the governing authority of the college, paying tribute to what he had achieved, said: “Keeping before us all, the high ideals that he believed the college’s history and mission proposed, Michael certainly played a key role in ensuring Mary Immaculate College is today not only the largest Catholic third-level college in the country but well acclaimed for its significant role in the Irish academic and educational landscape”.

Inevitably, the fact that Hayes was a priest was viewed as creating a certain distance between him and both the staff and students. There was also a perception that his clerical background contributed to his aura of gravitas and reserve. Though always pleasant to deal with, he was regarded as being authoritarian.

An energetic and effective fundraiser, he oversaw the college’ s incorporation of St Patrick’s College, Thurles, as part of its educational framework, also serving “as a centre for theological, pastoral and spiritual renewal in the region”, and the completion of a first-rate library costing €21 million, plus the inclusion of postgraduate studies at the college. And by actively supporting the activities of a theatrical group on campus, he enlivened the cultural atmosphere of the college.

As head of one of the State’ s largest Catholic teacher-training colleges, it was perhaps inevitable that Hayes would be on the firing line. Concerns were voiced regarding its approach to religion in its teacher education programme.

Teacher education

For instance, in a paper on teacher education prepared for the Higher Education Authority, Prof Áine Hyland noted how there continued to be concern in “some education circles” about the content of religious education programmes provided by Mary Immaculate and some other colleges.

However, in a robust submission to the 2012 government review of teacher education Mary Immaculate College of Education responded by stating it was “unreservedly committed to catering for students from all faiths and none”. It added that it was also committed to preparing teachers to teach all pupils, whatever their religious beliefs.

In a tribute to Hayes, Dr Anthony Towey, assistant editor of the Tablet, described him as: “Priest and professor, editor and executive . . . a man of many roles and talents who wore his skills with an enviable combination of elegance, charm and determined dexterity.”

He is survived by his brother David Aidan, sisters Deborah (O’Neill), Marjorie (O’Malley), Bredette (Keane), and Marie-Thérese (Foley).