Wednesday 30 December 2015

DERRY DIOCESE - HERO - NERO - ZERO AND GIRO

HERO - NERO - ZERO AND GIRO

The priests of the Catholic Diocese of Derry have four bishops living among them whom they nickname: HERO, NERO, ZERO and GIRO.

HERO:

The priests call the retired Bishop of Derry Eddie Daly "Hero" because of his world publicised picture waving a white hankie during The Troubles in Belfast.

HERO
NERO:

The Derry priests call Bishop Seamus Hegarty "Nero" as they regard his as a bit of a dictator.

NERO
ZERO:

They call the retired auxiliary bishop of Derry "Zero" as they think that he was unremarkable as a person and a bishop. In fact one of his Maynooth classmates told me today that he was an "also ran".

ZERO
GIRO:

The Derry priests call their current bishop Dickie McKeown "GIRO" as he is famous for running marathons and bicycle riding.

GIRO
They clergy are famous for their often sarcastic and caustic wit.

So in Derry these days the clergy talk of:  HERO, NERO, ZERO and GIRO.


9 comments:

  1. Interesting news from Derry :-)

    What about OUR last 4 bishops?

    Philbin - COY

    Daly _ PRY

    WALSH - SLY

    Treanor - DRY

    PP D&C

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  2. Mckeown is famous for spending plenty of money . He wasted no time in redecorating his new derry residence with the best of everything . Apparently his excuse was old seamus stank the place out with his pipe smoking . Seems like he's never herd of febreeze

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  3. Father Constantine Bile30 December 2015 at 16:31

    Was that a case of Nero smoking while Derry stank :-)

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  4. Did Seamus Hegarty not abandon the Bishop's House beside the cathedral and move to a South Fork type residence outside the city?

    Where is Dickie living - the place at the cathedral or is he out at South Fork?

    Priest of Down and Connor

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  5. I think the old bishops house at St eugines is offices now

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  6. This is Thinking Catholicism?? Poor!

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  7. The clergy are famous for their often sarcastic and caustic wit-- Points to something more serious beneath the surface

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  8. As of October 2017, Bishop McKeown lives in Ardstraw House, which is in the Buncrana Road in Derry, a long way away from the cathedral. Non parish clergy, some retired priests, visiting priests, the vicar general Fr Paul McCafferty etc all live in Collon House, which is located next door to Ardstraw House. The late Bishop Daly was the one who legged it from Bishop's House next to the cathedral in around 1989 to the new residence on the Buncrana Road.

    Today the Bishop's House or more commonly known as St Eugene's Cathedral Parochial House, located next to the cathedral is just home to the cathedral parish clergy, which sad to say has dwindled to just TWO full time clery, Fr Paul Farren (administrator) and Fr Patrick Lagan (curate).

    They rely on retired clergy A LOT now, with Fr Frank McLaughlin, retired priest from the Diocese of Nottingham residing in Clarendon Manor, a few streets away from the cathedral and Fr Paddy McIntyre, retired priest from the Salford Diocese residing in Rosemount area of the city which is part of the cathedral parish.

    ReplyDelete