Proud Bishop is back to his roots

From his earliest years, the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St. Nicholas has had a special place in the life of Brendan Kelly.

At his Installation as the Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh and Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora last Sunday, he recalled where that connection first began.

“While still in primary school fadó, at the end of the fifties of the last century, myself and my sister Mary went round the byroads and townlands in the parish of Craughwell on our bicycles collecting the halfcrown a week or less – whatever people could afford – to fund the building of this mighty edifice,” he told the congregation of over 2,000.

“We enjoyed the task very much as we got to know the parish and its people. And somehow we knew that like those contributing, we were all part of a great project.”

It was in the same mighty edifice, the largest cathedral in Ireland, that the native of Derrybrien in the parish of Ballinakill was ordained to the priesthood on June 20, 1971 by Bishop Michael Brown.

Taking up the mantle from Bishop Martin Drennan, Bishop Kelly at 71 is returning to very familiar territory.

Born the second of nine children to Sean and Annie Kelly, he boarded in St Mary’s College in the city and later spent eight years as a teacher in Coláiste Éinde in Salthill until 1980.

He studied his Higher Diploma in Education across the road in the former UCG.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.