Courtney, Michael Aidan

by Lawrence William White

Courtney, Michael Aidan (1945–2003), catholic archbishop and Vatican diplomat, was born 5 February 1945 in Nenagh general hospital, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, youngest child among four sons and three daughters of Aloysius Daniel 'Louis' Courtney (see below), medical doctor, of 23 Summerhill, Nenagh, and his wife Elizabeth (née Minihan). His paternal family had a long history of distinguished careers in medicine. He was educated at primary school in Nenagh, at Nenagh CBS, and at Clongowes Wood College, Co. Kildare (1956–62), where he was head boy, rugby captain, and an eloquent debater. Abandoning his early aspiration toward a medical career, and determining to pursue a path different from that of the family tradition, he studied economics and law at UCD (1962–3); he was elected to the Students' Representative Council, was a committee member of the Literary and Historical Society (L & H), and spoke at the Law Society. Contemporaries foresaw a career in politics, in which he had a lively interest. Inspired by the example of Pope John XXIII and the spirit of the second Vatican council, and seeking a way to live not for himself but for other people (as he reminisced in later life), he decided to pursue a vocation to the catholic priesthood, for which he studied in the Pontifical Irish College in Rome (1963–8). Ordained for the diocese of Clonfert (1968), he ministered as a curate in two Co. Galway parishes: in Tynagh (1968–73), during which period he was chaplain to the Tynagh mines, and taught at St Raphael's College, Loughrea; and in Woodford (1973–5). He was also diocesan adviser on religious education.

Returning to Rome in 1976 for postgraduate studies, he took a licentiate in canon law, and a doctorate in moral theology; subsequently he took an MA in legal philosophy from NUI Galway (1987). Training for the diplomatic service of the Holy See, he attended the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, where his studies included political science, international law, and diplomatic law. His first posting was in the Holy See's representation in South Africa (1980), followed by service in Zimbabwe and in Senegal. Serving in the nunciature in India in the mid 1980s, he was deeply involved in preparations for the state visit of Pope John Paul II in February 1986, negotiating delicate questions of protocol, and addressing controversial issues surrounding the official invitation extended to the pope by the secular Indian state. His next two postings were to Yugoslavia – the Vatican's only nunciature in communist eastern Europe – and to Cuba (early 1990s), where he helped initiate the diplomatic process leading to the papal visit of 1998. He enjoyed a vibrant and mutually respectful relationship with Cuban President Fidel Castro, often reminding the communist leader that they shared a Jesuit education. During his posting in Egypt, he assisted the Vatican delegation to the UN International Conference on Population and Development (September 1994), which strenuously enunciated the church's opposition to abortion and artificial contraception. Courtney was special envoy of the Holy See to the Council of Europe and allied institutions in Strasbourg (1995–2000), coincidentally serving as observer to both the European parliament and the International Commission on Civil Status, and on the governing board of the Council of Europe Development Bank, Paris. During this posting he followed closely the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights.

On his appointment as apostolic nuncio to Burundi (2000–03) – his first posting as head of mission – Courtney was ordained titular archbishop of Eanach Dúin (Annaghdown). The assignment confirmed his reputation as a skilled, experienced, and tactful diplomatic trouble‑shooter. Since 1993 Burundi had been wracked by crippling political and social unrest exacerbated by ethnic tensions between the majority Hutu population and the dominant Tutsi minority (largely a legacy of policies pursued under Belgian colonial rule). Civil warfare amongst government forces and a welter of Hutu and Tutsi paramilitary groups claimed many lives (some 300,000 by 2003, mostly civilians), and was marked by episodes of massacre and other atrocity, and a general climate of lawlessness and disorder. Those killed included senior UN officials, international aid workers, and over fifty priests and religious workers (including a local archbishop who was murdered after condemning an atrocity in 1996). The Belgian SABENA passenger airplane on which Courtney arrived in the country was strafed with small arms fire as it landed (4 December 2000); though none was injured, SABENA immediately closed the recently reopened route. On two other occasions during his mission Courtney was fired upon, but escaped injury.

A political breakthrough came with the 2001 Arusha accord, mediated by Nelson Mandela, which provided for a three‑year transitional government, with rotating Tutsi–Hutu presidencies, that would oversee the drafting of a new, power‑sharing constitution, followed by democratic elections. As papal nuncio in a country whose population of eight million was sixty per cent catholic, Courtney was widely accepted as an impartial mediator in efforts to induce dissident political parties and paramilitary groups to endorse the power‑sharing accord, and as a respected advocate of peace and social concord. In May 2002 he helped persuade a rebel group to drop its demands and release a kidnapped catholic bishop. In September 2002 he forthrightly criticised the failure of the international news media to highlight the Itaba hills massacre, in which some 1,000 civilians were killed by the Burundian army.

By December 2003 there remained only one armed dissident group outside the accord, the Hutu ultra‑nationalist Forces Nationales pour la Libération (FNL). Courtney, whose health had suffered during his mission in Burundi, was due to assume his next posting, as nuncio to Cuba, in January 2004. Believing that a breakthrough with the FNL was close, he cancelled his Christmas leave and obtained permission to extend by one month his period in Burundi, thereby continuing to be available as a mediator.

On 29 December 2003 Courtney was travelling on pastoral duties in a chauffeuered car displaying both diplomatic licence plates and the Vatican flag, which was fired upon in the countryside outside Minago, Bururi province, some fifty kilometres south of the capital, Bujumbura. Suffering severe gunshot wounds to the head, shoulder, and leg, Courtney – the only person in the vehicle to be seriously injured – died later in the day in a hospital operating theatre in Bujumbura. His remains were returned to Ireland, and interred in Dromineer cemetery, Co. Tipperary, near Nenagh.

It was claimed that Courtney was the first papal nuncio to die violently in over five hundred years. Responsibility and motive for his murder have never been established. In the immediate aftermath the Vatican described the killing as an 'assassination'. Deaglán de Bréadún of the Irish Times, reporting from Burundi several months after, described the shooting as a 'surgical strike' bearing 'all the hallmarks of a professional hit' (Ir. Times, 12 April 2004). The Burundian army and transitional government blamed the FNL (the region in which the shooting occurred was described as an FNL stronghold). The FNL robustly denied responsibility (but soon threatened a Burundian archbishop for refusing to believe their denial), affirmed their regard for Courtney as an honest broker, and blamed government supporters seeking to discredit their organisation on the eve of Ireland's assumption of the EU presidency. Some disinterested speculation centred on a faction of the FNL opposed to entering peace negotiations. It was also alleged that Courtney was investigating a case of fraud involving monies intended to fund the foundation of a catholic university, and had raised the matter with the Burundian authorities. Calls for an international investigation under UN auspices were unheeded. In May 2009 Courtney's brother, Dr Louis Courtney, on the last day of his thirty‑seven years as coroner of North Tipperary, convened an inquest into the death, at which he stated his own belief that Courtney had not been killed knowingly for political reasons, but was the victim of a random attack by assailants seeking money or supplies, and that the papal flag displayed on his car was too small to be seen by gunmen lurking in the bush.

A charismatic personality and enthralling conversationalist (long into many a night), Courtney had an easy and engaging manner with all sorts of people. Devoid of pomp or ostentatious religiosity, he was open to the perspectives of non‑catholics and non‑believers. His first priority in a new posting was to learn the local language, so as to communicate effectively with people outside a country's cosmopolitan elite. Besides English and Irish, he spoke Latin, Greek, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Serbo‑Croat, Hindi, and Kirundi (the national language of Burundi). He often worked directly with the needy and destitute, especially in houses of the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, whom he knew. While he upheld without deviation catholic teaching on issues of sexual, reproductive, and marital morality, his primary interest was in the social objectives of the church, especially the amelioration of poverty in developing countries. A man of immense physical and mental energy, he enjoyed swimming, tennis, horseriding, snow and water skiing, wind surfing, and Shannon One sailing. He maintained a holiday bungalow at Dromineer, on Lough Derg, a cherished haven for water sport, reflection, and spiritual refreshment.

The Irish government established in 2004 the Courtney Fellowship to sponsor one Burundian student annually to pursue a master's course in governance or peace studies. A limestone sculpture in Courtney's memory, commissioned by the diocese of Clonfert and executed by Tom Glendon, was unveiled in the grounds of Loughrea cathedral (January 2006).

Michael Courtney's father, Aloysius Daniel Joseph (A. D.; 'Louis') Courtney (1891–1985), was born 19 April 1891 at 22 Summerhill, Nenagh, eldest among six children (three sons and three daughters) who survived infancy of William J. Courtney (c.1856–1936), medical doctor, native of Killaloe, Co. Clare, and his wife Kathleen (née Lynch; c.1866–1939), only daughter of John Lynch, farmer, of Latoon House, Newmarket‑on‑Fergus, Co. Clare; four other children died young. William Courtney, after qualifying from the RUI (1882), served for fifty years as medical officer of Nenagh dispensary district (1886–1936). The first catholic doctor appointed to public office in Co. Tipperary, he served as a magistrate (1892–1920), but resigned during the war of independence to protest excesses of the Black and Tans. His wife came from a family distinguished in the law; her brother was Patrick Lynch (qv), IPP candidate defeated by Éamon de Valera (qv) in the East Clare parliamentary by‑election of 1917, and later a Fianna Fáil senator (1934–6) and attorney general (1936–40).

A. D. 'Louis' Courtney, after an invalided childhood, was educated at Nenagh CBS, Clongowes Wood College (1904–8), and UCD (1908–15), where, after reviving the college boxing club, he became captain and heavyweight champion, was a founding member and vice‑chairman of the Students' Representative Council, and a notable L & H debater. Qualifying in 1915, he practised medicine for seventy years. After serving in Dublin as house surgeon in St Vincent's hospital (1915–17), and assistant master of the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street (1917–19), he returned to Nenagh and began long service as county surgeon (1919–53) and county physician (1919–61) for North Tipperary, continuing in private practice after retirement from the latter office. During the Easter 1916 rising he took temporary charge of St Vincent's hospital (because of the unavailability of visiting staff), organising an ambulance service that patrolled the streets, and treating some eighty casualties from both sides; after the insurgents' surrender, he assisted in treatment of the severely wounded rebel leader James Connolly (qv) in Dublin Castle. During the ensuing political troubles he gave classes in first aid and nursing to branches of Cumann na mBan in Dublin and the Nenagh area, and acted informally as medical officer to the North Tipperary Bde, IRA, while also attending in his official duties to wounded British soldiers.

He played a central role in initiating and developing comprehensive general hospital services in Nenagh; largely owing to his efforts, the town secured one of the first new county hospitals, opened in 1936. For sixty‑two years he was deputy coroner for North Tipperary (1923–85). Commanding legendary local celebrity, he was acclaimed as a supreme diagnostician and a surgeon of exceptional skill and dexterity, especially in obstetrics and orthopaedics; in his early career in Nenagh he successfully performed complicated operations without benefit of electric lighting, let alone blood transfusions or radiography.

A knight of Malta, and founder of the order's Nenagh branch (1940), he organised branches of the Irish Red Cross Society in North Tipperary during the 1939–45 Emergency. Chairman of the North Tipperary branch of the IMA, he served on the body's central council for thirty years. A powerful long‑distance swimmer, regularly completing the four‑mile crossing of Lough Derg from the Tipperary to Galway shores, he listed his other recreations as work, rowing, and dancing. Notoriously unpunctual, he asserted that 'it was not how speedily one arrived that mattered but rather what action was taken on arrival' (Courtney, 229). He married (1933) Elizabeth Minihan (b. 1909), MA, a teacher, artist, and poet, of Glasgow, Scotland, daughter of Andrew Minihan, publican, of Skibbereen, Co. Cork. Two of their sons became doctors: William, professor of psychiatry, at British Columbia University, Canada; and Louis, consultant at Cavan general hospital. A. D. Courtney died 6 August 1985 at his home in Nenagh.

His brother, Anthony William (Tony) Courtney (1899–1970), was born 19 May 1899 at Summerhill, Nenagh, the third son and fourth child of the six surviving children of William and Kathleen Courtney. Educated at Nenagh CBS, Clongowes Wood College (1914–16), and UCD (1916–22), he was involved in the Volunteer movement while a medical student during the war of independence, and later served as medical officer to the national army (1922–3). He practised in Dublin as house surgeon in St Vincent's hospital (1922–3), and in the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital (1923–4), and as assistant master of the Coombe hospital (1924–7), before beginning long service as medical officer for Nenagh no. 2 district (1928–70). He was also coroner for North Tipperary (1923–70). The most talented of the family's many able athletes, he won a Tipperary senior county Gaelic football championship with Nenagh Literary Institute (1915), was a promising handballer, and was light‑heavyweight boxing champion of the NUI. A rugby wing forward, he was capped seven times for Ireland (1920–21), won a Munster senior cup with Garryowen (1920), a Leinster senior cup with UCD (1924), and played at senior level with Nenagh Ormond until 1929. Prior to the England v. Ireland international at Twickenham in 1921, asked by King George V how were the people in Tipperary, he replied: 'All under barbed wire, your majesty' (Courtney, 32). Until his last illness he played golf and tennis, as well as swimming, boating, and hunting. He married (1937) Johanna O'Shea, a resident nurse in Nenagh district hospital; they had two sons and two daughters. Resident at 20 Summerhill, Nenagh, he died 3 January 1970 after a short illness in Limerick regional hospital.