Brother Columbanus DeeganOFM, who has died aged 82, was a second World War veteran, who in 1944 took part in the D-Day landings.
Having served with RAF Bomber and Fighter Command, he watched the first phase of the landings at Sword beach from a landing craft carrying tanks.
"We were held back because we had to wait for the signal that the beach was clear enough for this stuff to go in," he would later record.
It was bedlam. "Big battleships were firing right behind us, and you were sure they were going to hit you. I'm sure you could actually see the shadow of those big shells going over. Then there was stuff coming back at you. And we also had the RAF going in and bombing the daylights out of them as well."
He was horrified by what he saw in Belsen immediately following the liberation of the death-camp. "I couldn't shake off the smell of death I experienced that day. I sometimes get flashbacks and the smell returns as if it was yesterday."
In later life he embraced pacifism and in February 2003 took part in the 100,000-strong peace march in Dublin. "I was not anti-Bush, or anti-Blair, but just like those marchers anti-war. I am deeply concerned that many innocent people will die in the threatened Iraqi conflict," he said at the time.
Born in Dublin in 1925, he was the son of James and Anne Deegan, Usher's Island, Ellis Quay. Educated at North Brunswick Street CBS, he went to work as a telegraph boy at the GPO.
Following the outbreak of the war he sought to enlist in the Irish army, but was rejected for being "too skinny". He travelled to Belfast, where his physique proved to be no barrier to recruitment.
As part of his wartime service he travelled by motorbike through France with a salvage unit, searching for and examining crashed aircraft. Those he thought could be repaired were returned to Britain, while those beyond repair were stripped of parts that were in short supply.
After the war he planned to settle down and marry in Dublin. "But God had other ideas for me. I had a few jobs here and there but I missed the comradeship and brotherhood of the services. That was what attracted me to the Franciscans. Saint Francis himself had been a soldier."
He entered religious life in 1958 and was professed in 1959. He served in Rome, Carrick-on-Suir and Drogheda before being appointed in 1981 to Waterford.
Based at the Friary, Lady Lane, he was for many years chaplain to the thousands of workers employed on the Waterford Industrial Estate. He also initiated the annual Blessing of the Animals in the friary gardens, a popular event that attracted young and old alike.
He anticipated the illegal drugs crisis, and to better understand the problem spent several summers in New York, observing NYPD drug officers at work. In addition he visited California to learn about the rehabilitation of drug addicts He worked tirelessly in his later years for those left behind by the Celtic Tiger. With his colleagues in Breadline he offered a safety net to homeless people who for their own reasons did not wish to avail of more regulated hostel accommodation.
He was involved with the Special Olympics movement and in 1978 paraded with the Irish team at the Special Olympics in Brockport, New York. When Dublin hosted the games in 2003 he renewed his acquaintance with Muhammad Ali at the opening ceremony in Croke Park.
In the 1990s he acted as consultant to Stephen Spielberg when the director was filming in Wexford, shooting the D-Day landings sequence for the film Saving Private Ryan.
Honorary secretary of the British Legion in the southeast for many years, he campaigned for greater recognition of the Irish men and women who fought overseas and whose stories were too often omitted from Irish history.
According to his friend and fellow Franciscan, Fr Eamonn O'Driscoll, he remained a "true Dub" throughout his life.
He is survived by his sister-in-law Phyllis Deegan, relatives, friends and all his Franciscan confreres.
Br Columbanus (John Joseph) Deegan: born April 4th, 1925; died July 18th, 2007.