In pictures: Monsignor Dan Carr retires as St Johnston parish priest

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St Baithin’s Church was packed on Sunday morning as Monsignor Dan Carr said his final mass as the parish priest of St Johnston.

For 35 years, Monsignor Carr was the PP in the east Donegal parish.

Monsignor Carr was accompanied by a large crowd of family members, parishioners and friends from his native Fanad.

Archdeacon William McMenamin, Pastor Emiritus, the former PP of Drumoghill, concelebrated at Sunday’s mass in St Johnston.

Mgr Carr has been based in St Johnston since 1988 when he succeeded Dr Daniel Cunnea as the parish priest of the then parish of Taughboyne.

Mgr Carr has been a popular figure in St Johnston having previously worked at St Eunan’s College in Letterkenny, where he was President from 1982-88.

A native of Ballyheerin in Fanad, he was ordained by Archbishop John Charles McQuaid in Maynooth in June, 1965.

In 1996, following the transfer of Bishop Seamus Hegarty, he was appointed as the Apostolic Administrator of the Raphoe Diocese.

Having been appointed as a Prelate of Honour, with the title of Monsignor, in December 1996, he was appointed as the Vicar General of the Diocese by Bishop Philip Boyce before becoming a Canon to the Cathedral Chapter in 2000.

He celebrated his Golden Jubilee in 2015 at St Baithin’s Church, St Johnston.

In the 1990s, he was an instrumental figure in a local cross community community of Taughboyne Development Group, who were responsible in developing local job creation and the regeneration of the villages of St Johnston and Carrigans.

The Bishop of Raphoe, Alan McGuckian SJ - who is in Rome - has wished ‘every blessing’ to Mgr Carr on his retirement.

The St Johnston parish will now be jointly administered by Fr Martin Cunningham and Fr Philip Kemmy, who have been appointed as Pastors in Solidum.

Fr Cunningham will be the Moderator and will look after the schedule and arrangements for funerals and weddings while Fr Kemmy will be in charge of administration, the Finance Committee and the Parish Pastoral Council as well as baptisms.

Mgr Carr will continue to live in St Johnston as Pastor Emeritus.