Three leaders of the main churches in Ireland, including Archbishop Eamon Martin, have paid tribute to the late Bishop of Clogher Diocese, Liam McDaid. Bishop McDaid passed away suddenly last month. He served as Bishop of Clogher from 2010 until 2016 when he retired due to ill health.
Catholic Archbishop Eamon Martin said he knew Bishop McDaid personally and through his work for the Bishop’s Conference, amongst other things.
He said he felt as a bishop “Liam was a gentle shepherd with a wealth of wisdom and pastoral experience and motivated by a warm concern for others.”
Originally from Bundoran, Co. Donegal, Bishop Liam McDaid was ordained in 1969 and worked as a teacher in St. Macartan’s College and later as President of the College from 1981 until 1989. He also served the parishes of Fivemiletown, Co. Tyrone and Tyholland.
Praising Bishop McDaid’s ‘depth and sincerity of his huge pastoral heart’ Church of Ireland Archbishop and Primate of All Ireland Francis John McDowell said his Catholic counterpart was ‘the type of bishop which Pope Francis values: someone who had the smell of his sheep around him’.
Archbishop McDowell also described how Bishop McDaid showed him the ‘breathless speed and skill of Gaelic games, but only as a spectator’ and said the days he spent with Bishop McDaid and retired Bishop Larry Duffy and Monsignor Shane McCaughey at senior football finals were ones of ‘arm friendship, wonderful company, much happiness’.
In his 54 years of ministry, Bishop Liam McDaid also served as vice president of Accord and contributed to the religious publishing agency, Veritas. He was also an advocate for greater road safety for younger people, especially in the border region.
The current Church of Ireland Bishop of Clogher, Bishop Ian W. Ellis also joined in on paying tribute to his Catholic colleague.
‘As someone who had spent his entire ministry in the Diocese of Clogher, Bishop Liam was so well known and highly respected in the wider community’, he said.
