Brother Thomas was born in Co. Kerry, Ireland, on the 9th February 1942. He joined the La Salle Brothers in 1955, completing his Novitiate in 1959, after which he was sent to England to further his studies. There he took his ‘O’ and ‘A’ Levels as well as doing his Teacher Training at La Salle Teacher Training College, Manchester. He completed the course in the summer of 1964.

Together with Brother Patrick Tierney, he arrived in Hong Kong in early September 1964 and was posted to St. Joseph's College.

Believe it or not, he is still there! An unbroken service to the school of 50 years. This must be some kind of record in Hong Kong.
After the first four year term, in 1968 he was sent to do his University studies in Dublin, Ireland. He then returned to teach at St. Joseph’s and had the foresight to follow a two year course in Cantonese at the New Asia College of the Chinese University. He was appointed the Principal in 1986 and had a long reign until retirement in 2002. During his tenure, St. Joseph’s attained many successes both in academic and sporting activities.
After retirement as Principal, Brother Thomas continued as Supervisor. He and the school community were overjoyed when an illustrious old boy, called Professor Charles Kao, received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2009. Professor Kao is generally known as “the father of fibre optics.” He also visited the school on a number of occasions.
Besides teaching and running a school, football is beloved by Brother Thomas. Year in and year out you could see him coaching the Inter-school footballers and with much success. He would also referee inter-class games in the school playground. Needless to say he supports Manchester United!
After such a long history associated with St. Joseph’s, it is not surprising that Brother Thomas knows the school inside out and he has an extraordinary memory for names and faces.
In recent times, Brother Thomas has had to endure some health challenges and he resigned as Supervisor of the College as of 1st September 2014. But he continues to live there, in the school he loves.