In pictures: A night of 'thanksgiving' as Fr Kieran McAteer celebrates golden jubilee

Click on the arrows to go through the photos by Thomas Gallagher

Fr Kieran McAteer raises the chalice. Photos: Thomas Gallagher

Stranorlar parish priest Fr Kieran McAteer, a former athlete, passed another significant marker on the road in his priestly marathon on Sunday.

The Church of Mary Immaculate in Stranorlar was packed-to-overflowing as the popular cleric celebrated the diamond jubilee of his ordination with a special Mass.

Bishop Emeritus of Raphoe, Philip Boyce, the Diocesan Administrator Monsignor Kevin Gillespie and  Fr Francis McLoone - ordained in Glenties 50 years ago on the same weekend - concelebrated Mass at the Church of Mary Immaculate in Stranorlar. 

Fr McAteer recalled his late grandfather, who lived with his family, “praying endlessly with the Rosary beads in his hands: I knew that he was in earnest and that he was sincere and it sparked something within me.”

When ordained in June 1975 at the Church of St Mary’s in Fanavolty, he became the ninth man from Fanad to enter the priesthood. He can still see the bonfires blazing at the respective homecomings - “wonderful parish events” which sewed seeds - he attended for Fr Michael Sweeney in Ballynabrocky, the late Fr Paddy Kerr in Portsalon and Fr Dan Car in Ballyherrin. 

Fr Sweeney and Monsignor Carr - whose diamond jubilee will be toasted in St Johnston on Thursday night - were among a large amount of Raphoe Diocese priests in attendance on Sunday.

In his younger years, he worked in a local shop in Fanad which helped him prepare for his ministry in dealing with the public. When he was in second year at St Eunan’s College, a teacher asked the boys to write down two things they’d like to be. The teenage Kieran McAteer wrote ‘priest’ and ‘professional footballer’.

He said: “I have followed the dream of one of those choices and I have lived the dream of the other for the last 50 years.”

A formidable sportsman in his own right, he competed as an athlete and also lined out for his native Fanad United. Indeed, the night before his ordination in ’75, a visit to physio Manus McGuinness in Letterkenny was needed: “I wasn’t getting the knee seen to to kneel before Bishop McFeely the next day in Fanavolty chapel, I was getting it ready for the next Sunday to play for Fr Mick Sweeney’s Fanad United in the Buncrana Cup.”

HIs formative years were a different time - “a world where a young boy knew where he stood” - and it was an era when “God was local, very much in the kitchen and part of the family” as families joined for nightly rosaries. 

Gifts symbolising his ministry, including a Book of the Gospels, the Holy Oils, a stole and a pair of Rosary beads, were brought to the altar. 

He stood at a pulpit he has spoken from “thousands of times”, on good days and bad, and said: “I have always regarded it as a privileged place and a responsible one.”

His first 11 years as a priest were spent at St Eunan’s Cathedral in Letterkenny before he went to Peru as a missionary priest. There, he encountered “a people who had nothing but I felt so welcome”.

Since 1993, he has been based in Stranorlar, first as a curate and laterally as the parish priest and there have been “many ups and downs, but certainly no regrets”.

He said: “I am so grateful to everyone who has been a part of the journey with me.”

Read next: In pictures: Fr Francis McLoone marks golden jubilee with 'a grateful heart'

Church of Ireland ministers Rev Mervyn Peoples and Rev Johnny Lowden were among the hundreds present for what Fr McAteer described as “a Mass of thanksgiving”.

He said: “I am so delighted that so many have come here. It really is humbling to see it.”

Bishop Boyce said Fr McAteer has brought “amazing experience and knowledge” to parishioners and said the Diocese wished to show “gratitude for all that you have been to the people of this parish.”

He added: “I must say you have a parish that is run very well. You, yourself, are an example of a person never really in a hurry but who gets things done and has people working for him and with him.”