Born: July 19th, 1945.
Died: August 15th, 2023.
A quiet man of deep emotional intelligence and strong pastoral instincts is how many in the Catholic diocese of Clogher will remember their late Bishop Liam MacDaid (78) who died on August 15th while on holiday in France. He had been Bishop of Clogher, a cross-Border diocese which includes much of counties Monaghan and Fermanagh as well as parishes in Tyrone, Donegal, Louth and Cavan, from 2010 to 2016 when, on doctors’ advice, he retired due to advancing Parkinson’s disease.
From Bundoran in Co Donegal, he had a respectable career as a Gaelic footballer in his native county where, frequently, it might be said the game is not for the fainthearted. He played for Donegal at all grades, including senior, and was a leading member of Bundoran GAA club, with which he won championship medals at junior and intermediate level, as well as multiple senior football championship medals with the amalgamation of Bundoran and Ballyshannon clubs. In 2019 Bishop MacDaid was inducted into the hall of fame by his club in Bundoran, an award he humbly accepted, saying he had been surrounded by an exceptional team of talented footballers in his playing years.
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Writing in the Donegal Democrat following the bishop’s death, his friend, former team-mate and former Donegal county manager Brian McNiff said: “He was not a bad footballer and gave a lot of good performances. He played minor, U-21, and got a few runs as a senior for Donegal. I remember him coming on as a sub in the National League semi-final against Offaly in 1969.” The bishop also “played in the first leg of the All-Ireland club final against Dunmore McHales in 1968 but had to go back to Maynooth and wasn’t allowed out for the second leg.”
He also remembered Bishop MacDaid playing in the Ulster Club final against Castleblayney in 1975 and when Bundoran picked up a few suspensions and injuries in 1977, “I got himself and Declan O’Carroll out of retirement to play for us to win the Donegal Intermediate Championship.”
A committed ecumenist, Bishop MacDaid’s warm relations with his Protestant counterparts in Clogher also involved the GAA. As the Church of Ireland Primate Archbishop John McDowell, himself a former bishop of that church’s Clogher diocese, recalled in a tribute on Bishop McDaid’s death that his own term as Bishop of Clogher “coincided almost exactly with that of Bishop Liam’s episcopal service ... anyone who knew him will attest to his quiet wisdom and unobtrusive manner.”
Archbishop McDowell added: “Bishop Liam had been a robust junior footballer in his youth and introduced me to the breathless speed and skill of Gaelic games, but only as a spectator. Our annual outings to Clones in the company of Bishop Joseph Duffy and Msgr Shane McCaughey for the senior football final, followed by the match analysis over a good meal are days which I will never forget. Warm friendship, wonderful company; much happiness.
“Nor will I ever forget the depth and sincerity of his huge pastoral heart for those in his care, or indeed of anyone who came within his orbit. Always practical and to the point, where he advised, he also helped. [He was] in many ways a model of the sort of bishop which Pope Francis values – as he said, someone who had the smell of his sheep about him. A true friend with a deep soul.”
‘Huge pastoral heart’
This “huge pastoral heart” was most evident, it has been said, in Bishop MacDaid’s role as chair of the Catholic bishops’ Council for Marriage and the Family and as deputy chair of Accord, the Catholic marriage advisory service, where he frequently had to deal with people in troubled and dysfunctional marriages, and which he did with great compassion.
From the beginning of his episcopal ministry, he was unequivocal about child safeguarding, saying in his first sermon as Bishop of Clogher in July 2010: “Society has forced us in the Irish church to look into the mirror and what we saw were weakness and failure, victims and abuse. The surgeon’s knife has been painful but necessary. A lot of evil and poison has been excised. There comes a time when the surgeon’s knife has done what it can, is put away and a regime of rehabilitation for the patient is put in place. We have been brought to our knees but maybe that is no bad thing.”
Reports from the National Board for Safeguarding Children on child protection in his diocese were particularly complimentary during his term. It was he who introduced the permanent diaconate to Clogher and began the process of parish clustering. He also placed great emphasis on diocesan youth ministry, with Clogher don Óige one of his significant initiatives as bishop.
In becoming bishop he followed the more traditional route, having attended Clogher’s diocesan college, St Macartan’s in Monaghan town, followed by St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, before ordination in 1969 and a return to St Macartan’s College as a teacher in 1970. He was president of the college from 1981 until 1989 and from 1990 until 1993, served in the parish of Aghavea and Aghintaine before being appointed diocesan secretary and chancellor of Clogher diocese. He was at the same time administrator of Tyholland parish in Monaghan.
In May 2010 he was appointed Bishop of Clogher and consecrated as such at St Macartan’s Cathedral in Monaghan town in July 2010. He retired in October 2016.