Community campaign to retain popular priest in County Roscommon intensifies

A campaign to keep a much-loved local priest in the Drum/Clonown area of South Roscommon has intensified with hundreds of parishioners signing a petition opposing the move by the Bishop of Elphin to relocate the curate.

It’s understood that a local committee, representing the local community, is now considering seeking a meeting with Bishop Doran or a representative to ask him to reconsider moving curate Fr. Michael Hickey. The petition with hundreds of signatures from parishioners was also gathered by the committee at its meeting held on Monday.

In a recent letter to parishioners outlining diocesan changes, Bishop Kevin Doran confirmed that Fr. Hickey would be returning to his religious order, the Holy Ghost Missionaries, at the end of August.

Fr. Hickey, aged in his eighties, has served as a very popular curate in the Drum/Clonown area for the last seven years.

“I take this opportunity to thank Fr. Michael who has served generously in the parish for seven years, and well beyond the normal age of retirement,” Bishop Doran said in his letter. The Bishop’s correspondence also outlined that following the changes in the St. Peter & Pauls parish, “the team will be at normal strength”.

However, parishioners have expressed shock, sadness and anger over Fr Hickey’s proposed relocation. More than two hundred people attended a public meeting in Drum Parish Hall last week, voicing their opposition to Bishop Doran’s decision.

The meeting was told that there was “a deep sense of sadness combined with shock and anger” at the way the decision was communicated to the priest and to the parish community.

The Roscommon Herald contacted the Elphin Diocese for comment and were guided to the letter sent out to parishioners.

Mary Moore, one of hundreds of parishioners in the Drum/Clonown area opposing the Bishop of Elphin’s decision to relocate Fr Michael Hickey, has described him as an “amazing man”.

A carer to her 48-year-old special needs daughter Martina, Mary said she was shocked at the decision to move the hugely popular priest who has had such a positive impact on the community.

“I’m disappointed about the way the decision was made. We adore the man in this house. We have a special needs daughter and she absolutely adores Fr. Hickey,” she explained.

“There's something very special about the man – he’s an amazing man. We have known him for seven years and it’s like we have known him for an eternity.

“This man I know is elderly but he's still doing his job. The Pope is older than him and he’s head of the Catholic Church. Fr Hickey is an energetic man,” she said.

Because she is a carer, Mary explained that she doesn’t often attend meetings, but was determined to attend last week’s public meeting in Drum Parish Hall where more than two hundred people turned out to voice their opposition to the Bishop’s decision.

At the meeting, many people shared their personal testimony of how Fr. Hickey had helped them and many others in the community, particularly attending to people at times of isolation, sickness or bereavement.

“There's a huge depth of feeling about the whole thing, and talk about the crowd that filled Drum hall. The support there that night - it would bring tears to your eyes. That’s the truth, that's how I felt about it,” she said.

Like many parishioners, she is hoping that Bishop Doran will reconsider his decision to move Fr. Hickey.