{{short description|Catholic bishop}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2023}} {{Infobox Christian leader | type = Bishop | honorific_prefix = The Most Reverend | name = John Tohill | title = [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Down and Connor]] | image = Bishop John Tohill.jpg | alt = | caption = | church = [[Catholic Church]] | archdiocese = | diocese = [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Down and Connor|Diocese of Down and Connor]] | see = | term = 1908–1914; (died) | predecessor = [[Henry Henry]] | successor = [[Joseph MacRory]] <!-- Orders --> | ordination = 22 Sept 1878 | consecration = 20 Sept 1908 | consecrated_by = [[Michael Logue]]
<!-- Personal details --> | birth_date = {{Birth date|1855|12|23|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Kilrea]] | death_date = 4 July 1914 | death_place = [[Belfast]], [[Ireland]] | previous_post = [[Parish Priest]] [[Cushendall]] | motto = }} {{Infobox bishopstyles | name=John Tohill | dipstyle=[[The Most Reverend]] | offstyle=[[Excellency#Ecclesiastical use|Your Lordship]] ''or'' Bishop | relstyle=[[Bishop]] | deathstyle=not applicable }}
'''John Tohill''' (1855–1914) was an [[Ireland|Irish]] [[Roman Catholic]] [[Prelate]] and 26th [[Down and Connor|Lord Bishop of Down and Connor]].
He was born in Gortmacrane<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.townlands.ie/en/londonderry/loughinsholin/tamlaght-ocrilly/gortmacrane/| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180502064113/https://www.townlands.ie/en/londonderry/loughinsholin/tamlaght-ocrilly/gortmacrane/| archive-date = 2018-05-02| title = Gortmacrane Townland, Co. Londonderry}}</ref> [[County Londonderry]], on 23 December 1855 to Anthony Tohill and Alice (née Convery) Tohill. He studied [[Classics]] at ''Tirgarvil School'' and then boarded at [[St. Malachy's College]]<ref>{{Who's Who | title=Tohill, John | id = U191608| type = was | volume = 1920–2016 | edition = April 2014 online | access-date = 17 February 2021 }}</ref> before entering [[St Patrick's College, Maynooth|Maynooth College]] on 21 September 1875.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.greenlough.com/our-parish/our-parish-history/the-tohills/| title = The Tohills {{!}} Tamlaght O’Crilly Greenlough Parish {{!}} Derry Diocese}}</ref>
==Priestly ministry== Tohill was recognised as a brilliant student at Maynooth coming first in every class. [[Patrick Dorrian]] (then [[Down and Connor|Bishop of Down and Connor]]) recognised Tohill's scholarly ability and even before he was ordained priest he was appointed to the staff of [[St. Malachy's College|Diocesan College]] in [[Belfast]]. He was ordained by [[Patrick Dorrian]] on 22 September 1878.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/btohill.html| title = Bishop John Tohill [Catholic-Hierarchy]}}</ref>
Tohill taught classics (mostly Greek) at the college until 1894 but always involved himself in the wider pastoral life of Belfast. An Irish Times obituary recalled that during the [[1886 Belfast riots]] "Fr Tohill exercised his influence in the interests of peace." He gave evidence, along with several Catholic laymen, at a [[Select committee (United Kingdom)|Select Committee]] in Westminster on what he had witnessed and police behaviour in 1886.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/archive/wit/1914/0711/Pg008.html#Ar00806| title = The Irish Times – Saturday, July 11, 1914 – Page 8}}</ref> Additionally he presented a list of Catholic businesses wrecked in Protestant districts, suggesting the attacks were far from random outbursts of sectarian violence but systematic in nature. <ref>https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/violence/darby.htm</ref>
In 1894 Tohill was transferred to Holy Family Parish in North Belfast and then from 1898 to 1905 he was Administrator of [[St Peter's Cathedral, Belfast]].<ref>{{cite book | last=Canning | first= Bernard| title= Bishops of Ireland 1870-1987| location= [[Ballyshannon]] | publisher= [[Donegal Democrat]]| pages=118/9| year=1988 | isbn= 1870963008}}</ref> He served as Parish Priest of [[Cushendall]] from 1905 to 1908.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rHUTDAAAQBAJ&q=john+tohill+cushendall&pg=PA73 |title = Catholic Belfast and Nationalist Ireland in the Era of Joe Devlin, 1871-1934|isbn = 9780199298846|last1 = Hepburn|first1 = A. C.|date = 17 July 2008}}</ref>
==Bishop== Following the death of [[Henry Henry]] he was consecrated 26th [[Down and Connor|Lord Bishop of Down and Connor]] on 20 September 1908 by Cardinal [[Michael Logue]]. One of his first tasks as bishop was to lay the foundation stone at [[Clonard Monastery]] which occurred on 4 October 1908.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dHi05vP0ZckC&q=%22bishop+john+tohill%22&pg=PA42 |title = Renewal and Resistance: Catholic Church Music from the 1850s to Vatican II|isbn = 9783039113811|last1 = Collins|first1 = Paul|year = 2010}}</ref>
In 1911 he visited his home district of [[Lavey, County Londonderry]] to administer the sacrament of [[confirmation]] to over 160 children, there having been no celebration of the sacrament in the preceding five years due to the illness of the [[Bishop of Derry]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tuohey.biz/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/DRAFT-The-Tohill-Family-of-Ballymacpeake-Upper.pdf|title=THE TOHILL FAMILY OF BALLYMACPEAKE UPPER, COUNTY DERRY, IRELAND|website=Tuohey Family History Site}}</ref>
He died after a year long illness in [[St. Malachy's College]] on 4 July 1914 and is buried in [[Milltown Cemetery]], [[Belfast|West Belfast]]. A London Times obituary claimed he had been appointed bishop because he had had no interest in politics and paid tribute to his "quiet, unassuming character."<ref>{{cite web| url = https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19140707.2.68?end_date=31-12-1949&page=2&phrase=2&query=Down+and+Connor&start_date=01-01-1839| title = Papers Past {{!}} Newspapers {{!}} Evening Post {{!}} 7 July 1914 {{!}} OBITUARY}}</ref>
He was succeeded by [[Joseph MacRory]].
==References== <references />
==External links== * [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/btohill.html Profile] catholic-hierarchy.org; accessed 5 February 2016. {{Subject bar |portal1= Biography |portal2= Catholicism |portal3= Ireland|portal4= History}} {{Roman Catholic Bishops of Down and Connor}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tohill, John}} [[Category:1855 births]] [[Category:1914 deaths]] [[Category:Alumni of St Patrick's College, Maynooth]] [[Category:Roman Catholic bishops of Down and Connor]] [[Category:20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland]] [[Category:People educated at St Malachy's College]] [[Category:Christian clergy from County Londonderry]]