Search Results for 'Eamonn Casey'

The Galway Diocesan Office has said this week that it needs “time and space” before making any decision on whether to move Bishop Eamonn Casey’s remains. The office — which represents the Catholic Diocese of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora — issued a statement at the weekend in response to calls for the disgraced former bishop of Galway to be removed from the crypt at Galway Cathedral.

Over two days this week RTÉ Radio 1’s LiveLine programme was bombarded with callers demanding that the remains of former Bishop of Galway Eamonn Casey should be removed from their place of honour beneath Galway cathedral.

In the late 12th century, the Diocese of Annaghdown came into existence in the area surrounding the city of Galway. In 1324 it was united with Tuam, but the Anglo-Norman families refused to accept direction from Tuam. In 1484 Pope Innocent VIII made St Nicholas’ Church a Collegiate Church governed by a warden (not a bishop) and eight vicars. Edmund ffrench, the last warden, was made Bishop of Kilmacduagh in 1824. On April 27, 1831, the Bull ‘Sedium Episcopalaism’ was issued by Pope Gregory XVI erecting the Diocese of Galway. On October 23, 1831, the first Bishop of the Diocese, George Joseph Plunkett Browne, was consecrated, and in 1844 he was succeeded by Laurence O’Donnell. John McEvilly became Bishop in 1857.

Fr Pat Connaughton, Bishop Casey’s secretary for a while, recalled a time when he and the bishop were going to a meeting in the archbishop’s house in Thurles. “Our car broke down. No matter. We were near Thurles. We left it on the side of the road, and walked the rest of the way, the bishop’s arms swinging by his side. We were passed by Bishop Kevin McNamara, in many ways the very antithesis of Casey. McNamara looked out the window, and remarked to his driver: ‘There goes Eamonn in drama again.’

‘It was a scandal the way people waited in vain to see President Reagan and all they saw was a hand at the window,” lamented the late Cllr John F King at the first city council meeting following the visit of President and Mrs Reagan to Galway on June 2 1984.

On Sunday September 19 1976 the former bishop of Kerry, Eamonn Casey, succeeded to the See of Galway. He had been appointed some months beforehand, but was delayed by his long goodbye tour of Kerry. The people of Kerry were heartbroken to lose him.

Well! Where do I begin? So much has happened since we last spoke together. In our conversation last week, we talked about Sr Christopher Mary Callan from the Bower Convent in Athlone, Eamonn Casey and others.

Dear Editor,

Well, we had such a week of emotion last week - in the Dáil, in the Seanad, in the newspapers, and on radio and TV.