28 January 2017

New chapter for journalist
turned ‘priest-in-charge’

Attending the Church of Ireland Service of Welcome for The Reverend Patrick Comerford as the new priest in charge of the Rathkeale Group of Parishes in the Holy Trinity Church last Friday night in Rathkeale. In photo Deputy Niall Collins; Cllr Adam Teskey; Archbishop of Dublin Most Revd John Neill; Rev Patrick Comerford; Bishop of Limerick, Right Rev Kenneth Kearon; Cllr Stephen Keary and Minister Patrick O’Donovan (Photograph: Marie Keating / Limerick Leader)

Patrick Comerford

Today’s West Limerick edition of the Limerick Leader [28 January 2017] publishes a full-page ‘Picture Special’ feature on page 19 on the Service of Introduction in Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale, last week [22 January 2017], with a news report by reporter Maria Flannery, and 14 colour photographs by photographer Marie Keating.

Today’s full-page report by Maria Flannery and photographs by Marie Keating in the Limerick Leader)

The report reads:

Rathkeale: Rev Comerford Installation

■ Rev Patrick Comerford is appointed to Rathkeale Group of Parishes

New chapter for journalist
turned ‘priest-in-charge’

Maria Flannery


A former Irish Times journalist has been appointed the Church of Ireland priest-in-charge of the Rathkeale Group of Parishes.

Reverend Patrick Comerford has embarked on a new chapter with the move to west Limerick, after having worked as a journalist and a professor over the past 20 years.

“I’m enjoying it, it’s a pleasure, a delight for me,” said Rev Comerford, who worked as Foreign Desk Editor at the national newspaper.

“I only moved into the rectory in Askeaton last Thursday, and already I have been throughout Askeaton and Rahkeale and to the church at Castletown in Pallaskenry.

“There’s a delightful sense of community, and they’ve welcomed me into the heart of their community, which is beautiful,” said the Dublin-born cleric.

For the past 11 years, Rev Comerford has been a theology lecturer at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, and has worked as an assistant professor in Trinity College Dublin.

“So this is a completely different form of ministry for me,” he said.

He said that he “burned a candle at both ends by going back to college”, completing a degree in theology while holding down his journalism job.

“I worked for the Irish Times for 26 or 27 years, the last eight years of which I was the Foreign Desk Editor,” said the Reverend.

“Before that I had worked in provincial journalism with the Wexford People.

“I was ordained while I was Foreign Desk Editor in the Irish Times,” he recalled.

A husband and father to two sons, Rev Comerford is also a daily blogger on his site www.patrickcomerford.com.

On this site he shares everything from travel, to sermons, lecture notes and eating out.

“As a former journalist, I find it easy to put together a couple of hundred words first thing in the morning, it just comes naturally to me.”

Rev Comerford’s area of ministry spans across four churches across two dioceses: Holy Trinity Church in Rathkeale, St Mary’s Church in Askeaton, Castletown just outside Pallaskenry and St Brendan’s Church, Kilnaughtin, Tarbert.

Rev Patrick Comerford, pictured after his installation as priest-in-charge, Rathkeale Group of Parishes (Photograph: Marie Keating / Limerick Leader)

The new Reverend of Ratheale and Kilnaughtin Patrick Comerford is pictured with his wife Barbara (Photograph: Marie Keating / Limerick Leader)

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