Ex-bishop of Down and Connor’s ‘strong sense of loyalty and duty to the church’

Ex-bishop of Down and Connor’s ‘strong sense of loyalty and duty to the church’

10 January 2024

TRIBUTES have been paid to former Bishop of Down and Connor, Patrick Walsh, who was laid to rest last week.

Well known across Down District, he has been remembered for “a strong sense of duty and loyalty to the church in rapidly changing times”.

Retiring in 2008, Bishop Walsh passed away peacefully a few days after Christmas at Nazareth Care Village, with his funeral Mass at St Peter’s Cathedral in Belfast on Tuesday of last week attended by senior clergy.

A family notice said his death was “deeply regretted” by his brother Michael, sister-in-law Jacqueline, wider family and friends.

Born in Cobh, Co Cork, in April 1931, Bishop Walsh moved to Belfast aged 11 before studying at St Mary’s Christian Brothers’ Grammar School and Queen’s University.

Ordained in Rome in 1956, he joined the staff of St MacNissi’s College, Garron Tower, from 1958 and was appointed President of St Malachy’s College, Belfast, in 1970. 

He was ordained as Auxiliary Bishop for the Diocese of Down and Connor in 1983 and Bishop of Down and Connor in 1991.

His many other roles included Trustee of Trocaire, a member of the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools, chairman of the St Mary’s University College and chairman of the Trustees of the Mater Hospital.

Addressing mourners, Bishop Donal McKeown, Apostolic Administrator for Down and Connor, said like another Patrick 15 centuries before “young Patrick Walsh came to walk among us as a boy, having spent his first years in Co Cork”.

The third of four children born nine years after partition, Bishop McKeown said moving to Northern Ireland with a different accent and few local connections “must have seemed like coming to an alien land”, but that “people of faith try to flourish where ever they are planted”.

As the son of a civil servant, he said that Bishop Patrick had “a strong sense of duty and loyalty to the church in rapidly changing times”, whether that was in education, at the Mater Hospital or the “many different sorts of troubles that he had to deal with over the decades”.

This including making sense of the early student demonstrations in the late 1960s, leading a large school when Belfast “descended into chaos in the 1970s” as well as learning of the “awful truth” that some of his ordained colleagues were capable of serial sexual abuse of children.

He continued: “After his friend Bishop Anthony Farquhar also died in November, Bishop Walsh knew his own death was approaching and was said to have “accepted his growing debility with patience.

“Today we lay him to rest in this Cathedral, on the restoration of which he had dedicated so much time and energy before his retirement.”

Bishop McKeown said he would remember Bishop Walsh’s “personal commitment to Catholic education” as well known and his robust defence of it which will long be remembered.

“These early years of his priestly ministry taught Bishop Patrick that Catholic education, and the values it espouses, opens up incalculable opportunities for young people and assists the journey towards peace in a society often torn apart by violence and conflict.”

“Ordained as an Auxiliary Bishop for the Diocese of Down and Connor in 1983, alongside Bishop Farquhar, whose funeral we celebrated just some weeks ago, these two faithfully served the diocese not only through the sacramental celebration of Confirmation but each played their own role in the peace process.

“Their years of episcopal ministry were marked by the many funerals of those who had lost their lives in the midst of conflict.

“Into that space, they spoke words of faith-filled hope, solidarity and challenge, faith-filled hope in the Risen Christ, solidarity with those who mourned the loss of loved ones and words of challenge to those entrusted with the process of peace-making. 

“We should honour both their memories by strengthening our resolve to continue to take forward the peace process in Northern Ireland.”

Bishop Keown said that following Bishop Walsh’s appointment as Bishop of Down and Connor, he was “utterly dedicated and faithful in his service of the church”.

He added: “Alongside his diocesan responsibilities, he was a member of various Irish Episcopal Commissions including Justice and Peace, and was a member of the Joint Bio-ethics Committee of the Episcopal Conference of England and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, ardently seeking to protect human life from the moment of conception to its natural death.”

“On the day of his episcopal ordination, a bishop chooses a motto upon which to model his life and ministry. Bishop Patrick chose Ex Animo Operari [“To work with one’s heart”], from St Paul’s Letter to the Colossians (Col 3:24). 

“In this passage, Saint Paul reminds us that, as Christians, it is Christ that we serve and that we will share, through Baptism, in Christ’s Death and Resurrection. As we give thanks to God for the years of ministry and service of Bishop Patrick Walsh, we entrust him to the heart of Christ.”