Letter from Fr John Blowick to Dr Theo Dillon, 11 February 1938
February’s document of the month is a letter from Fr John Blowick to Dr Theo Dillon, dated 11 February 1938 (UCDA P126/192). Dr Theo Dillon, born Theobald Wolfe Tone Dillon in 1898, was at this time Professor of Pharmacology and Therapeutics in UCD. He had an ongoing interest in religious concerns and appears to have requested information on Irish missionaries abroad.
Fr John Blowick was one of the co-founders of the Maynooth Mission to China, now The Missionary Society of St Columban. The Society was formally launched in 1918 and the first Columbans went to China in 1920. Gradually the vision widened to the Philippines (1929), Korea (1933), Burma (Myanmar) (1936), and Japan (1948).
In the letter Blowick regrets that he cannot give any information concerning missionaries outside of his own order, suggesting where Dillon can find such information and attaches a list of the missions and numbers of priests and Sisters of St. Columban.
UCDA P126/192 Letter from Fr John Blowick to Dr Dillon, 11 February 1938
