Farewell to Fr Paddy

“If the church can inspire such people to such generosity, I think we can be assured that the church will survive and grow in strength. He was like a big comforting presence among us.”

Bernard Berney’s comment was made at Saturday night’s farewell event in the Parish Centre for Fr Paddy Ryan, who leaves Kilcullen this week after serving here for three years. Though his time here was short, Bernard emphatically placed Fr Paddy in the gallery of priests who have served the parish well. On his own behalf, and on behalf of the people of the parish, Bernard thanked Fr Paddy for his time spent in Kilcullen.

“It was Fr Paddy who pointed out to me that the church has undergone major changes every three hundred years or so, and that what we are seeing now is one of those major changes in the church and in society. Now we have witnessed the last curate to serve in Kilcullen, it is time for us laity to take a much more active part.”

Maurice O’Mahoney, chairman of the Pastoral Council, said that anyone who met Fr Paddy Ryan would certainly remember him, because he was a man of the people. “He meets people, talks to them, discusses things with them, and when we heard that he was leaving the parish there was a genuine sense of disappointment.”

He said this was particularly so in Scoil Bhride, where Fr Paddy was chaplain and was ‘always a part of the school community’. “He was chairman of our school’s Board of Management, where he brought his wisdom, his experience from Africa and from Greenhills in Dublin, to the important work of making decisions on the management and the running of the school.”

Maurice noted that Fr Paddy’s skills had also been very important to the Pastoral Council in its deliberations and decisions relating to the pastoral needs of the parish. “He has been a light to the people of Kilcullen in a time of difficulty and great change in the church.”



Petra Conroy, on behalf of the Pastoral Council, presented Fr Paddy with a framed photograph of the tower at Old Kilcullen. “The parish is a different place, and a better place for Fr Paddy having been here,” she said. “And we are a better people for it. We really took him into our hearts for the time he had for the youngest to the oldest members of the parish, and especially for the sick. He has a great theological knowledge, which has been polished by years of pastoral experience, being with people and caring for people.”



One of the oldest members of the community, 94-year-old Mrs Queenie Whelan, made a presentation to Fr Paddy on behalf of the people of the parish. She said she was going to miss him very much, as he visited her every week.

Saying that ‘you’ll never see the likes of him again’, Fr Michael Murphy placed Fr Paddy’s departure in the context that he wasn’t going to be replaced. “The response from the people of Kilcullen to the situation in which we are now has been very generous, and that’s how we have to keep going,” he said. “If we keep doing that, all will be well.”

Adding his own thanks to Fr Paddy for the time he had spent in Kilcullen, he wished him good health and every blessing for his future.

Responding, Fr Paddy expressed his own thanks to the community and to those with whom he had worked, for their own kindnesses to him. He particularly mentioned Tom McCarton for his work in and around the church, and Claire Lambe for looking after him in the parish house.

“You all gave me a great welcome and great support,” he told the assembled well-wishers. “And that is something I will remember all my life.”

Brian Byrne.