Martin D. Hoolaghan

Martin D. Hoolaghan, of Columbia, died Aug.12, 2008, of cancer, at his residence. He was 53.

He was born July 16, 1955, in Glasgow, Scotland, to Thomas and Josephine Hoolaghan. At 12, he went to Montfort College, a Montfort Missionaries junior seminary in Romsey, Hampshire, in the south of England, where he graduated high school.

In 1982, he earned a bachelor's degree in sacred theology from the University of Louvain, Belguim, and was then ordained as a Catholic priest in Glasgow. Afterward, he earned a master's degree in religious studies in London.

He returned to Scotland in 1985 and served as director of the Montfort House Retreat Center in Barr Head until 1986, when he moved to Washington, D.C., where he lived with the Montfort Missionaries and earned a master's degree in pastoral counseling in 1988 from Loyola College. He would later earn a doctorate of philosophy in pastoral counseling from the college in 1992.

For about four years, beginning in the late 1980s, he served as a priest at St. Clement's Catholic Church in Lansdowne.

In 1988, he opened a psychotherapy practice in Lutherville and Ellicott City, which he operated until earlier this year.

From 1999 to 2008, Dr. Hoolaghan also worked as an adjunct faculty member at Loyola, where he taught psychopathology and clinical diagnosis for the pastoral counseling program.

"Martin astounded everyone with his resolve to live life after his diagnosis, and even his doctors were astonished that he continued to work until the early part of the summer," said his life partner, Martey Longmire, whom he met in 1990 through a mutual friend.

"I kept telling him people would think I was crazy. I would tell everyone about his pain and his prognosis, then he would show up smiling and carrying on as if nothing was wrong. I told him they would think I was lying," Longmire said.

Dr. Hoolaghan left the priesthood in 1990. The following year, he and Longmire moved to Columbia.

Three years later, Dr. Hoolaghan became a U.S. citizen at the age of 40.

Family members recall that Dr. Hoolaghan had a warm smile and a great sense of humor, as well as an English accent due to his years in England. When people would ask him where he was from, he would reply, "'I'm from Dundalk, Hon!'"

Dr. Hoolaghan was predeceased by his father, Thomas Hoolaghan.

In addition to his life partner, he is survived by his mother, Josephine Hoolaghan, of Glasgow; three sisters, Patricia Doran, Ellen Hoolaghan and Mary McMichael, all of Glasgow; a brother, Thomas Hoolaghan, of Glasgow; two nephews, Charles Brolley and Matthew Hoolaghan, both of Glasgow; three nieces, Louise Brolly, Misha McMichael and Oliva Rose Hoolaghan, all of Glasgow; two aunts and an uncle, Patricia Davidson, of Southampton, England, and Joe and Theresa Hoolaghan, of Glasgow; as well as cousins, other relatives and special friends, the Rev. Melvin Blanchette, Shannon Frederick and Carolyn Bisser.

A celebration of Dr. Hoolaghan's life is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008, 2 p.m., at Witzke's Funeral Home, 5555 Twin Knolls Road, Columbia.

Memorial donations may be made to Southern Poverty Law Center, 400 Washington Ave., Montgomery, AL 36104 or to: www.splcenter.org.

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