Pope Francis has appointed a Westmeath priest as the new Catholic Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois.
Fr Paul Connell (65) is from Mullingar and has followed what could be described as the traditional route to episcopacy in Ireland. He attended secondary school at St Finian’s in Mullingar, diocesan College of Meath diocese, followed by St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and ordained at the Cathedral of Christ the King, Mullingar, in 1982.
After a brief period serving in Rochfortbridge parish in Westmeath he joined the staff at St Finian’s College becoming vice-president there in 1989 and President in 1998. He completed a MA in Local History at NUI Maynooth in 1994 followed by a doctorate in 2002 and, later, lectured part-time in Ecclesiastical History at Dublin’s Milltown Institute while remaining President and Principal at St Finian’s until 2019.
It became a coeducational secondary school in 2003 while its boarding school closed in 2007. Fr Connell was also President of the national support body for secondary schools, the Secretariat for Secondary Schools, from 2013 to 2018.
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In 2019 he was appointed Executive Secretary of the Council for Education of the Irish Episcopal Conference, based in Maynooth, and in 2020 was appointed Chancellor of the Diocese of Meath.
For many decades Fr Connell has been chaplain at St Mary’s Hospital, Mullingar (Cluain Lir) and over many summers he worked in the US dioceses of All Saints and St Gabriel’s in the Archdiocese of Miami and, more recently, in the parish of St Gregory, San Diego. In August 2021 he was appointed Administrator of Multyfarnham parish in Westmeath.
His appointment was announced at 11 o’clock on Wednesday at St Mel’s Cathedral in Longford following which he celebrated Mass there alongside Archbishop of Tuam Francis Duffy, who Fr Connell succeeds as Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois, as well as Bishop of Meath Tom Deenihan, Administrator of Ardagh and Clonmacnois Fr Tom Healy, and Msgr Julien Kaboré, charge d’affaires at the papal nunciature in Dublin.
Bishop of Meath and Chair of the Council for Education of the Irish Bishops’ Conference and Chair of the Catholic Education Service, Bishop Tom Deenihan said that he warmly welcomes the appointment of Father Paul Connell.
“Father Paul has the experience, the ability, the dedication and the faith to undertake this important appointment at this time,” he said.
“My congratulations are tinged with personal regret at his loss to the Diocese of Meath. I will very much miss his judgement, loyalty and commitment.”
