Obituary: Patrick (Pat) Colgan

by Terry Kelliher

The news came in a text that announced, “Pat has died”, a short statement of fact giving rise to so many memories and images and all of them good. One is admonished to say nothing ill of the dead, an instruction that in Pat’s case is impossible not to follow for there truly was no ill to be found other than his leaving us.

Pat was clever, Pat was knowledgeable, Pat was witty, Pat was kind, Pat was gentle, Pat was compassionate, Pat was patient.

Pat was inspirational, a teacher of remarkable ability. A psychotherapist of deep insightful caring. A man who loved his wife and stayed in love with her all the days of his life. A man who raised his children to be their own person and delighted in the differences. A man who adored his grandchildren and celebrated the continuity of life on down through this rising generation, he made sure to spend time with them, albeit in the far away places where they were to be found.

A man who knew the challenges of life but who also knew how to negotiate those same challenges with great good humour. A man who communicated a profound belief that “all will be well in all manner of being”. Those around him drew from that trust and so were enabled to be the best that they could be. They carried that fundamental trust with them into the professions for which as teacher, mentor and ultimately as director, he prepared them.

Pat knew that for as long as one was alive one was learning. To be open to learning required not a ruthless interrogation of mistakes but the compassionate realisation of a limit, an invitation in the words of Beckett (beloved of Pat) to “fail again …fail better”. To be supported while doing this by a person of wit and wisdom was to be much blessed and that is what Pat gave to us in the Loreto Centre in Crumlin where he spent a long number of years as the Clinical Director of Psychotherapy.

Prior to his time in Loreto, Pat was a very valued member of the team in Eckhart House Institute of Psychosynthesis and Transpersonal theory. His training as a psychotherapist was completed there. He contributed greatly to the teaching, practice and the building of a strong community in Eckhart House from its beginnings in the early 80s until its closure in 2008. He is sadly missed by his colleagues there.

Pat’s passing has left us in deep sorrow that in this time of living we will not perceive his face again, but it has also left us profoundly grateful that we were the lucky ones to have known him. We witnessed the living embodiment of the values he brought to his work and personal relationships. Ours is this great legacy but so too ours is the responsibility to re-member the example Pat has left to us, not to copy for that would be impossible, but to re-imagine it in our time so that nothing of Pat is lost to us as we go forward.

To his beloved wife, children and grandchildren we offer our sincere sympathies at their inestimable loss.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

IAHIP 2023 - INSIDE OUT 99 - Spring 2023