Mullingar priest is honoured in Florida
A 79-year-old Mullingar-born man who has spent his lifetime serving as a priest in the Diocese of Miami has been honoured by a local organisation which described him during the ceremony as “a model priest”.
Fr Anthony Mulderry, pastor emeritus of St Gabriel Parish in Pompano Beach, was presented on May 14 with the inaugural St Junipero Serra Excellence Award by the Serra Club of Broward County, which dedicates itself to promoting vocations and supporting priests and other religious.
When Fr Mulderry – who has been battling some health issues – arrived on stage, one woman shouted: “We love you, Fr Tony”. Another chimed in with: “You are the best”.
Fr Mulderry is a native of Dominick Street. His parents were the late Sean and Mary Mulderry, who both featured in the touching story Fr Mulderry shared with the attendance of 140 of how he came to enter religious life. He explained that he felt the calling to the priesthood in 1959, when he was a 16-year-old secondary school student.
“I had pretty much signed up with the Irish Columban Fathers,” he recalled – but it turned out God had other plans. “That same spring, right before Easter, my dad dropped dead at a football game. We were a poor family. That destroyed all my chances of becoming a priest,” he said, explaining he was needed at home to help his mother and family.
However, his late father’s best friend, who had emigrated to America in 1931, learned of the young Tony’s difficulty: “He came home and asked me if I would be interested in becoming a priest of the Archdiocese of Miami,” said Fr Mulderry. “I was given another chance to become a priest.”
The next stop for the past pupil of Presentation NS, St Mary’s CBS and Gormanston College was All Hallows in Drumcondra, and he was ordained on June 18, 1967 for the Diocese of Miami, his first appointment being to St Michael’s parish, one of the largest in the diocese.
“I didn’t know what Miami was all about. I have never regretted it,” he said.
In 1969, Fr Mulderry was transferred from St Michael parish. He then served at St Anthony, Fort Lauderdale, 1969 to 1974; Little Flower, Coral Gables, 1974 to 1976; and St Patrick, Miami Beach, 1976 to 1977. He served as pastor of St Mary Star of the Sea, Key West, from 1977 to 1982, when he was named founding pastor of All Saints in Sunrise.
In January 2004, he became pastor of St Gabriel, Pompano Beach, from which he retired on July 1, 2018.
“I can say it has been an enormous blessing, and I hope you can say the same,” he said about his priesthood, going on to reveal that he is hoping to go home (to Ireland) this year.
During his school and college years, Fr Mulderry was a hurler and footballer of some note, playing with both Mullingar Shamrocks, and the former Pearse’s club.
He was bereaved on April 17 2020 by the death of his brother, Sean, of Millmount Avenue, who was an honorary president of Mullingar Shamrocks.
Malcolm Meikle, Serra Club president, paid tribute to Fr Mulderry for the way in which he had demonstrated his commitment to vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life in the Catholic Church.
He added that Fr Mulderry had also gone above and beyond to guide and support the Serra Club and its members over the years.