Fr Tom Layden (52) has been appointed provincial of the Irish Jesuit province and will take up office on July 31st, the feast of Jesuits founder St Ignatius.
Fr Layden has worked in Belfast for the past 12 years. He was born in Dublin and lived in Keadue, Co Roscommon, until the age of 12, when he went to school in Clongowes. It was there he first encountered the Jesuits. He joined the congregation in 1979.