Locals lament transfer of charismatic priest

A west Clare community yesterday lamented the transfer of its campaigning parish priest to a new posting in a move proposed by the Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh.

Last year, the parish of Cross-Kilbaha was successful in forcing Bishop Walsh to perform a U-turn and allow Father Pat O'Neill remain as parish priest on the Loop Head peninsula.

Bishop Walsh rescinded his decision to transfer Father O'Neill to a nearby parish after the local community sent a delegation to him armed with a petition signed by 95 per cent of the community calling for Father O'Neill to remain.

Over the past number of years, Father O'Neill has been actively campaigning on the effects depopulation is having on the Loop Head peninsula.

However, in his annual diocesan appointments, Bishop Walsh has once again moved to transfer Father O'Neill to a new parish where he will be involved in the diocesan's pilot project of establishing a "team ministry" in four parishes straddling the Burren.

Bishop Walsh said that some of the advantages of the new system include the pooling of talents and ideas of priests and people in the different parishes; giving a variety of celebrants to people at the Sunday Eucharist and avoiding the "aloneness" of priests in the present system.

"The reality is that we have no student studying to be a priest for the next number of years and we have a number of priests in their 70s and 80s. We have to look to and prepare for the future," said Father O'Neill.

Director of the Kilbaha-based Rural Resettlement Ireland, Mr Jim Connolly said yesterday that the transfer of the priest "is a great loss to the area".

He said: "Father O'Neill is a stalwart who has stood with the people of the parish on the streets to protest at the ongoing failure of the authorities to address the depopulation of the area. "

Father O'Neill is a member of Imeall Boirne, spearheaded by Bishop Walsh, which is part of an initiative in response to the shortage of priests.