This article is from page 17 of the 2007-11-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
FORMER ~ Lisdoonvarna parish priest, Brendan Kelly, was last week appointed as the new Bishop of the Diocese of Achonry.
Monsignor Kelly, who served as PP in Lisdoonvarna from 1996 to 2003, will succeed Bishop Thomas Flynn who has been in charge of the Mayo,
Sligo and Roscom- mon diocese for the last 30 years.
Speaking after the announcement _ the Bishop-elect said that he was happy to be in the diocese and had already been made to feel very welcome by the priests and all the people he has met.
He went on to say that he looked for- ward to working in the diocese and would concentrate his initial efforts on getting to know the priests with whom he would work and the people of the diocese.
Monsignor Kelly was born in Der- rybrien on the Clare/Galway border in May 1946. He was the second in a family of nine. He attended Craughwell National School before going on to St Mary’s College in Crea
When he finished secondary school he began his studies for the priest- hood in St Patrick’s College, May- nooth in 1964, where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Divinity, and was ordained a priest in the diocese of Galway in June 1971. After his ordination he studied for his Higher Diploma in Education
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After serving a year as curate in Kinvara, he held a number of teaching posts, first in Colaiste Einde, and then in Our La- dy’s College in Gort until 1986 when he became president until 1995.
He received sab- batical leave in 1995 and served as chap- lain to the L’Arche community in Cul-
se-la-Motte in France.
Following his time in Lisdoonvarna he was appointed as parish priest for Spiddal in Galway where he served until he was announced as the Bish- op-elect for Achonry last week.
The Diocesce of Achonry consists of 23 separate parishes, with 39 priests and 47 Catholic churches. Ac- cording to the latest census figures the Diocese of Achonry consists of 35,224 Catholics.