Big honour for town as Fr Connell made bishop

The Bishop of Meath, Most Rev Tom Deenihan, has said he is going to miss the “judgement, loyalty and commitment” of Mullingar priest Fr Paul Connell, who was named on Wednesday by Pope Francis as Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois.

One of the best-known faces in Mullingar clerical life, Fr Connell (65) is a native of the town, and enjoyed a high profile as President of the Diocesan College, St Finian’s College, as well as serving as chaplain to St Mary’s Hospital and as diocesan chancellor.

Fr Connell, who received his primary education at St Mary’s CBS primary school in Mullingar and his secondary education at St Finian’s College, completed his seminary training at Maynooth in 1982 and was ordained to the priesthood in the Cathedral of Christ the King, on June 20, 1982. Following ordination, he was briefly attached to Rochfortbridge parish before being appointed to the staff of St Finian’s. He has also spent many summers ministering in Miami and in San Diego. Since 2021, he has also been Multyfarnham parish administrator.

Speaking at St Mel’s Cathedral in Longford when the announcement was made, Fr Connell said that he was deeply honoured to have been asked to undertake the role, but that the decision had not been an easy one or one that he took lightly: “The responsibilities that come with the office of bishop are daunting, indeed frightening,” he said.

A man with a razor-sharp intellect, Fr Connell is holder of a BA from St Patrick’s College, Maynooth (1978) and a BD from the Pontifical University (1981). In 1982 he received the Gilmartin prize in Ecclesiastical History from the Pontifical University.

He completed his Higher Diploma in Education in 1983 and from 1992-94 undertook an evening Masters in Local History in NUI Maynooth, and was awarded a doctorate in history by the university in 2002 for his work on Bishop John Cantwell.

Bishop-elect Connell spent some years lecturing part-time at the Milltown Institute of Theology, Dublin, and has published a number of works. He is a director of the Catholic Primary School Management Association; former president of the Secretariat for Secondary Schools. He was executive secretary of the Council for Education of the Irish Episcopal Conference, and secretary to the Catholic Education Service. He was involved in the negotiations in relation to the divesting of Catholic Primary Schools.