A popular North Kilkenny-born cleric who served two South Kilkenny parishes for more than half his priesthood is settling into retirement at his new Ferrybank home.
Father Dan Cavanagh, a native of Galmoy, was ordained on June 9th 1974 and served as Parish Priest of Glenmore before moving to neighbouring Rosbercon, where he was PP for 20 years until his recent retirement.
Prior to his arrival in South Kilkenny, the Maynooth graduate had spent 25 years as a marriage counsellor – primarily based in Kilkenny – and also served as a National Director for Accord, the Catholic Marriage Care Service.
Fr Dan, who is now Chaplain at the Little Sisters of the Poor Convent and Care Home in Ferrybank, where he also resides, admitted he was ready for retirement.
“The biggest change is that I don’t have the responsibility for a parish,” Fr Dan told KCLR when we recently visited him in Ferrybank.
“I was very fortunate to become Chaplain for the Little Sisters of the Poor, who look after the elderly but if anything goes wrong here, they (the Little Sisters) are responsible – not me – and that’s a huge change…so there’s a liberation in that for me.
“And while of course I’ll miss my friends, I feel I stayed in Rosbercon long enough and that the time was right for me to leave down that responsibility. And the good thing for me here is that I’ve got a congregation to say Mass for, without even having to leave the building!”
We spoke to Fr Cavanagh on a range of topics as part of our Between Towns And Villages broadcast focusing on the Callan-Thomastown Municipal District, which is available here:
Between Towns And Villages spotlight falls on Callan-Thomastown (Part One)
Between Towns And Villages spotlight falls on Callan-Thomastown (Part Two)
Between Towns And Villages is funded by Comisiún na Meán’s News Reporting Scheme
Photo: Dermot Keyes/KCLR
