Fr Paddy Ryan arrives
Kilcullen's new priest, Fr Paddy Ryan, celebrated his first official mass in the parish church at last night's Saturday vigil.
After being introduced by Fr Murphy, Fr Ryan said that everybody he'd met so far had made him feel very welcome. He said Kilcullen was certainly living up to the reputation he had heard about before arriving.
"Since I told my friends and neighbours in Dublin that I was coming to Kilcullen, they assured me that I was going to one of the best parishes in the Diocese of Dublin," he said at the mass. "And just last night I had an email from one of my friends, living in Bahrain, who said I was very lucky to be working with Fr Murphy, and also very very lucky indeed to be working in Kilcullen, which he said was his favourite spot in Ireland."
Fr Ryan is originally from Clonoulty-Rossmore in County Tipperary. He went to school in Cashel and did his Leaving Certificate in 1954. "I was born several years before the Second World War," he observed. "I have very vivid memories of the last months of the War and reading all sorts of stories about it."
He joined the Holy Ghost congregation when he left school, and was ordained in 1964. The following year he was sent to East Africa, first to Kenya and after a short while to Tanzania 'on loan' for two years. "I stayed for 23, nearly all of that time working with the formation of priests ... training diocesan priests and training Holy Ghost missionaries."
Back in Ireland in 1989 for what was supposed to be a short break actually resulted in an appointment on a temporary basis to a new parish in Kimmage. He subsequently became Bursar at the Holy Ghost headquarters in Kimmage and worked again with students in the seminary there. In 1996 he was appointed to Greenhills Parish for a three-year stint ... which ended up being nine and a half years!
"I was very happy there, and I loved it. Last year I took another break, and recently was appointed to Kilcullen with the agreement of my Provincial and the Archbishop. I'm very happy to be here among you, and hopefully we'll be able to get on together, that we'll learn from each other, and that we will evangelise each other. That was my experience in Greenhills and I hope it will be my experience here in Kilcullen, that we will share the Gospel and we will live it together."
Brian Byrne.
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