Monsignor, Dermot Farrell.

New Bishop of Ossory is Westmeath-born Monsignor

The new Bishop of the Diocese of Ossory is to be the Westmeath-born Monsignor, Dermot Farrell, formerly president of St Patrick’s College, Maynooth and currently parish priest of Dunboyne and Kilbride in County Meath.

The appointment was announced by the Vatican last Wednesday.

Bishop-elect Farrell is a native of Garthy, Castletown Geoghegan (right), and has had a distinguished career, both in the clerical and academic worlds.

The son of Mrs Carmel Farrell, who still lives in Castletown Geoghegan, and her husband, the late Dermot Farrell, he has one brother, Fintan, who lives in Garthy, and four sisters, Mary Foley, Orla Fitzgibbon, Colette Campbell and Gemma Egan.

Bishop-elect Farrell was born on 22 November 1954 in Castletown-Geoghegan and was baptised Dermot Pius a few days later in the Cathedral of Christ the King in Mullingar.

After attending primary school at Castletown Geoghegan and Streamstown, he attended St Finian’s College, completing his secondary education in 1972.

Following his Leaving Certificate, Bishop-elect Farrell went to St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, obtaining in 1976 a Bachelor of Science degree, and three years later, a Bachelor of Divinity degree, followed by, in 1981, his Licence in Theology degree.

On June 7, 1980, Bishop-elect Farrell was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Meath, and on completion of his studies at Maynooth in 1981, his first appointment was as curate at the Cathedral in Mullingar, where he remained until 1985 when he moved to Rome. There, he undertook his Doctorate Studies at Gregorian University, Rome, while also serving, from 1987, as Director of Formation at the Irish College in Rome. Upon obtaining his doctorate in 1988, Bishop-elect Farrell was in 1989 appointed curate in Tullamore and lecturer in Moral Theology at Maynooth. A year later, he was appointed executive assistant to the President in Maynooth, continuing to lecture in Moral Theology. In 1983, he was appointed vice-president of Saint Patrick’s College, and he served in that role until 1996, when he became president, a position he held until 2007, when he was appointed an Honorary Prelate of His Holiness, and made Parish Priest of Dunboyne and Kilbride.

Since 1989, Bishop-elect Farrell has been Vicar General to the Diocese of Meath.

The Diocese of Ossory, to which Bishop-elect Farrell has been appointed, consists of County Kilkenny and portions of counties Laois and Offaly. The Catholic population of Ossory is 84,729. There are 42 parishes in the diocese and 89 churches. There are 58 priests active in the diocese and 15 others. The patron saint of the Diocese of Ossory is Saint Kieran. The retired bishops of Ossory are Bishop Laurence Forristal (September 2007) and Bishop Seamus Freeman SAC (due to ill health, July 2016).