Picture: Valerie O’Sullivan
The two priests that will replace two long-serving curates in the Killarney parish will be very familiar with the town as both have served there already.
But while Fr Joe Begley was on the teaching staff in St Brendan’s College for 22 years, and later served as parish priest in Kilcummin, the time spent in Killarney by Fr Seán Jones was far more brief.
He served as a deacon in the parish prior to his ordination, at the age of 30, in 2018.
That ceremony, officiated by Bishop Ray Browne, was the only ordination in the Diocese of Kerry for the past 15 years and Fr Jones, a native of Moyvane, has since been based in St John’s Church, Tralee.
Dingle native Fr Begley, however, has much more experience of clerical life and he will be very familiar with the nearby St Brendan’s College where he was a hugely respected Irish teacher.
He was the only remaining priest on the staff in ‘The Sem’ when, in 2007, a shortage of vocations in the diocese saw then Bishop Bill Murphy having to appoint Fr Begley as parish priest in Kilcummin.
His departure from St Brendan’s College marked the end of an era as the school had a constant direct bond with the church since it was founded back in 1860 as a seminary to prepare young men for the priesthood.
After his time in Kilcummin, Fr Begley served as parish priest in his native Dingle and, in latter years, in Glengarriff where he also had responsibility for Bonane and, on occasions, Kilgarvan where there is no resident priest.
While he is currently preparing to move from Glengarriff to Killarney, Fr Niall Howard is heading in the opposite direction after being elevated from the curate’s post in Killarney to parish priest in the busy tourist spot which is geographically located on County Cork but is part of the Kenmare Pastoral Area.
A native of Tralee, Fr Niall was ordained in 1999 and he has been in Killarney since 2012, having previously served in Caherciveen.
While in Killarney, he earned a great reputation for his pioneering and innovative work with national schools in the parish and his very thought-provoking homilies.
Fr Jim Lenihan, meanwhile, is preparing for a new life in the bustling parish of Glenflesk where he will have three churches and a number of schools to keep him busy, in addition to his daily pastoral work.
Popular Fr Jim, who succeeds the late Fr Kevin McNamara, is a native of Boherbue in north Cork and he recently celebrated the silver jubilee of his ordination which took place in in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Thurles, Co Tipperary on June 7th 1997.
He had served in Listowel, Castletownbere, Allihees and Eyries before being transferred to Killarney by Bishop Ray Browne in 2014.
The changes will become effective from Wednesday, July 20.
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