Born in County Cork, Ireland on 22 August 1932, Fr Dunlea entered the Oblate Novitiate at Cahermoyle, Limerick in 1952 and later studied at the Oblate Seminary in Piltown, Co Kilkenny, where he was joined in 1954 by a young Don Hughes OMI who had travelled from Fremantle, Western Australia to begin theological studies.
Frs Dunlea and Hughes were among six Oblates ordained in the Seminary Chapel at Piltown on 15 September 1957. All had been granted special permission to be ordained at the beginning of their fourth year of studies.
Fr John’s first appointment was to Fr Don Hughes’ home parish of St Patrick’s in Fremantle, where Fr Dunlea had a cousin, Fr John Coakley OMI, also working as an assistant priest in the parish. After four years at Fremantle, he was appointed parish priest of Pickering Brook and Karagullen, an honour for such a recently-ordained priest.
In 1965, Fr John took up his appointment at St Kieran’s in Moe as parish priest. During his six years there he oversaw the construction of a new church. On moving to South Australia in 1972, his community skills were put to work as the first parish priest in the newly created parish of St David’s in Tea Tree Gully, where there was a new church and a small parish house but no school.
In his quiet determination he achieved the building of a parish primary school. Today the parish has three schools, a Catholic secondary college and a parish house.
In 1979, he returned to Fremantle for a two-year stay, followed by appointments to Lesmurdie. He stayed there until 1987 when he was again called upon to form a new community, this time in the new parish of St Eugene in Burpengary, Brisbane.
Fr John returned to Lesmurdie briefly in 1995 as administrator before being appointed to St Kieran’s in Moe as parish priest, a position he held until 2008 when, after celebrating his Golden Jubilee the year before, he returned to Ireland for a sabbatical year. He had been working alongside current parish priest Fr Bernie O’Brien as assistant priest at St Kieran’s since 2009.
Only two of Fr John’s fellow classmates remain – Fr Tony Quinlan OMI who is working as a parish priest in Edinburgh, Scotland and Fr Don Hughes OMI who is working at Mazenod College in Lesmurdie, Western Australia.
Reflecting on Fr John’s life during a tribute to his 50 years as a priest, Fr Don Hughes said, “Our Church in Australia and the Oblate congregation owes much to the priestly fidelity of Fr John Dunlea OMI.
“He has left his strong but quiet mark on many parishes across the Australian continent.
“His entire priestly ministry has been spent in parish life.”