The Revd Michael Mulqueen was ordained to the diaconate at Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Clonfert by Bishop Michael Burrows on Monday 9th June, 2025. The address was given by the Revd Canon Nicola Milford, Rector of All Hallows, Allerton and Area Dean of Liverpool South. The organist was Ms Marie Power. The celebration continued after the service, with hospitality provided by the parish in Clonfert Hall & Community Centre.

Revd Mulqueen will serve as OLM to Clonfert Union of Parishes, alongside the Revd John McGinty and provide assistance to the Ven John Godfrey in his parishes, Aughrim & Creagh Union.

A County Galway native who left behind city life in Liverpool to set up home with his family in Ahascragh is to be ordained in the Church of Ireland.

Michael, his wife, Róisín, and their children swapped their home near the world famous Penny Lane for Ahascragh, upon Róisín accepting a consultant doctor role in the Galway University Hospitals group. The two youngest children attend The Glebe National School in Aughrim. The eldest, Alex, is a primary school teacher in Spain, while Harry is studying for his B.A. degree at the University of Galway.

“We are blessed by strong friendships that have blossomed with our neighbours here in Ahascragh and Ballyforan, and by those friendships we still enjoy in Liverpool. It is also good to live near to Oranmore, where I was raised and where my mother and school friends still live,” said Michael.

Michael will serve mainly in the Clonfert Union of Parishes, leading church services and offering pastoral care to the congregations of St Brendan’s Cathedral, St Paul’s Church, Banagher; St John the Baptist’s Church in Eyrecourt and Christ’s Church Portumna. He will also assist in the neighbouring Aughrim and Creagh Parish Union, within which is located St Catherine’s Church, Ahascragh.

“By their wonderful encouragement and affection to Róisín, myself and the children, the Church of Ireland family here in east Galway has done so much to share God’s love with us as we face the awesome reality of imminent ordination,” he added.

“My role will be a self-supporting, local one, working this coming year to assist the priests already serving the people of both parish unions, Reverend John McGinty and Archdeacon John Godfrey.

“The clergy’s service to the Church in Word and Sacrament – my calling – is a vital and distinctive one. It sits among the priesthood of all Christian believers. I look forward to listening, chatting, and rolling up my sleeves to give practical help, as we, together in faith, commit our lives to building God’s kingdom in this beautiful but broken world,” he said.

Few may have predicted Michael‘s call to priesthood. Over a long career, he has worked as a journalist, a senior police officer and, although now retired and working in the home, remains a university professor.

“To serve in each one of these varied roles has been a great privilege and learning. Each exists to help us build a better world. Yet, each, in turn, propelled me to ponder Christ’s eternal love, justice and mercy. In whichever role we do, we need to turn to Christ as the source of true healing and transformation. I’ve discovered the same in living a life continuously marked by sin and the shame of hurting others. I badly needed the precious gift of Christ’s forgiveness to piece things together again and try better.

“When eventually these realisations really sank in, I sensed a gentle but insistent calling to help people open out to Christ’s love. The ordination is a moment to witness how Christ, who can’t help but love us, will always make use of anyone who asks for God’s help. In Christ there is always hope,” he added.

Michael is Emeritus Professor of Policing and National Security at the University of Lancashire, having led one of England’s largest police and forensic science schools. He climbed the academic ladder with spells as a lecturer, full professor and head of school in universities in Limerick, Liverpool and, finally, Lancashire.

He also served as a high ranking police officer in Leicestershire, holding command of emergency policing for a population of up to 1 million people in one of England’s most religiously diverse cities, and across a web of towns and small rural parishes.

He started out as a broadcast and print journalist, at one point winning the prestigious ESB Radio Journalist of the Year Award.

Michael is due to complete his theological and ministry studies at the Church of Ireland Theological Institute in Dublin. Among his previous academic qualifications are a Ph.D. from U.C.D., where he was a Government of Ireland Scholar, and, from the University of Galway, a B.A. (Hons.) and H.Dip, as well as a postgraduate certificate from Teesside University in England.

We wish the Revd Mulqueen many blessings in his new ministry.