Obituary – Fr Dan Magill CSsR 1924 – April 4, 2010
ON Easter Sunday, popular Redemptorist Fr Dan Magill died peacefully in his sleep at St John of God Hospital Subiaco, a day after expressing that this special day would have been a good time to die. Fr Dan’s gentleness, humour and down-to-earth love had touched many lives and a large crowd gathered to pay their respect to a man who was known for his great compassion.
Born in County Antrim in Ireland in 1924, Fr Dan moved with his family to the town of Matamata on the north island of New Zealand when he was three years old. It was an area famous for breeding horses, an interest that Fr Dan retained throughout his life, even having a horse and a race named after him.
In his younger days in his countryside home he had to work hard milking cows and ploughing paddocks.
He was one of three boys and his older brother, Fr John Magill, preceded him in entering the Redemptorist Congregation.
Fr John was Superior of the Redemptorists in North Perth when the Retreat House was built beside the monastery in 1967. Fr Dan’s first appointment to the monastery was in 1973.
As a Redemptorist priest, Fr Dan travelled the length and breadth of Australia and New Zealand preaching parish missions. In 1977 he was part of a six-man team who travelled in a kombi-van in outback WA and through to Darwin, conducting missions in many places on the way, including Mt Magnet, Newman and Paraburdoo. He, along with other missioners, would camp by the side of the road for several months and only return to Perth when the rainy season hit Darwin.
Fr Dan was also known as a great storyteller and a very popular preacher.
He would often use his skills as a magician to draw people and such was his talent he was officially awarded membership into the Magicians Club.
He never lost his taste for magic, and in his latter years he loved to perform tricks for young and old alike.
In his earlier days, Fr Dan had a struggle with alcohol. Many years ago he was able to overcome this through his association with Alcoholics Anonymous.
His contact with AA opened him up to a huge, lifelong apostolate. People struggling with alcohol addiction could contact him at any hour of the day or night, and he always made himself available to help them.
Due to Fr Dan’s efforts there are now eight AA Groups holding their weekly meetings at the North Perth Monastery.
Indeed his devotion to AA is a legacy that lives on and there were many members of the group in attendance at his funeral.
They were amongst a wide range of people who had been on the receiving end of Fr Dan’s heart of love and compassion.
In the latter part of last year, Fr Dan sensed that he might not have too long to live and one of the confreres jokingly suggested to him that he ought to get a good photo of himself taken for his obituary card.
Fr Dan readily accepted the idea and organised the photos, which were consequently used for his funeral booklet.
In the weeks before entering hospital in February this year Father Dan was still celebrating public Masses in the North Perth Monastery Church, hearing confessions and taking his turn to preach the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help.
After a short illness, he left this life in a way that he had always hoped and prayed.