Much-loved former parish priest Denis McGettigan to celebrate his Diamond Jubilee

People from all over the parish, diocese and far beyond will gather for Mass of Thanksgiving on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Ordination of Canon Denis McGettigan, PE, on Friday evening 20 June at 7pm, in St. Eunan’s Church, Raphoe.

This will mark a great milestone in the life of a much-loved priest who is better known to everyone as Father Dinny. Immediately after the Mass, everyone is invited to Deele College for light refreshments.

Fr Dinny was born in his beloved Kilmacrennan in 1939 and received his primary education in the local two-teacher school, which had around seventy pupils enrolled. A fond memory he has is of the class teacher, Mrs McCafferty, bringing them to her home for tea on the morning of their First Holy Communion.

As he moved through the classes, the big target was the primary certificate or the “Grand National” of the time, as he called it. He and five others successfully sat their primary certificate, where at that time scholarships to the Gaeltacht were available for entry into St. Eunan’s College in Letterkenny. Unfortunately, on the morning of departure for the Gaeltacht he became ill and was unable to go which meant that he spent another year at primary school. “Providentially, that extra year was very valuable to me as I developed a very keen interest in education and study”, he said.

In 1953 on the prompting of his uncle Fr Oliver McGettigan, his father enrolled him in St. Eunan’s College on the Saturday and he started on the following Monday morning, the first day of the new term. That was a big change for him. Fr Arthur McLoone was the college president; he was a very good singer and a well-known man. Both he and Fr Tommy Doherty were a great combination. Among the staff at that time were Frs Finnegan, Cunnea, Bonner, McCaul and Muldoon. John Wilson who played senior football for Cavan was a great classic teacher and went on to become Tánaiste in later years.

During the Summer of 1958 having obtained a very good Leaving Certificate, he decided that he would go to St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth. Starting on 16th September that year, he was now leaving home for a longer spell. At that time Raphoe diocese had ten or twelve students in training. Fr Willie McMenamin was in his second last year and Fr Desmond Sweeney was in his last year. There were 89 students in his class and between five and six hundred students in total in the college. One of his teachers was Fr Tom Fee who later went on to become Cardinal Tomás O’ Fiaich.

Fr Dinny did his degree in Irish and History. He became very keen on Irish due no doubt to his mother being a native of Barnes in Termon, where there was a great deal of Irish spoken. Having obtained his degree, he then did four years of theology. His classmate was Fr Dan Carr and both of them having been great friends since 1953, worked together on a lot of things subsequently. He said that Maynooth at that time was reasonably strict as regards to silence and rules but not overly so. He and his classmates were ordained on 20th June 1965.

As there was no bishop in the Raphoe Diocese at that time, the ordaining prelate was the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. John Charles McQuaid. When the newly ordained priests went in to give the archbishop their blessing afterwards, he said to Fr Dinny “You have a fine Cork accent”. As Fr Dinny alluded, the archbishop had a fine humour with him too. Then there was the great welcome home in Kilmacrennan which was the done thing at that time and even yet.

About a week or so later a new bishop was consecrated for Raphoe, Bishop Anthony McFeely and he appointed Fr Dinny and Fr Carr to St. Eunan’s College. Fr Dinny said that some of the teachers who taught him were still there and Dr. Cunnea was now president. He spent two years teaching there and then went to Terenure College in Dublin to do his HDip. He and two Carmelite colleagues stayed in the college and did their HDip in Maynooth.

Having got his HDip with honours he returned to St. Eunan’s College and remained there until 1973. He was then appointed chaplain to Loreto College in Milford and a curate in his own native parish of Kilmacrennan, in Golan. He said that Loreto was a very good school and well managed by the talented nuns there. In his final year in Golan, he went through a period of ill-health brought on no doubt by the death of his father in 1980. While in St. John of God’s he met Fr Willie Nugent whom he described as a tremendous priest and both of them became life-long friends.

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In 1982 Fr Dinny was appointed as curate in Drumkeen and remained there until 1986. This was his first real introduction to the Raphoe parish having spent a short while there in 1967 while teaching in St. Eunan’s College, filling in after the death of Fr Michael Carr who was parish priest at that time.

He found the people of Drumkeen to be very welcoming and got to know the Raphoe parish quite well. He remembers fondly the Three Days of Faith that were held in the parish and the turnout at Mass and confession was very inspiring. After the famous priest, Fr James McDyer retired in 1986 due to ill-health, Fr Dinny was appointed as parish priest to succeed him in Carrick. He said that it was a lovely part of the county with a good spread of Irish spoken throughout the parish and townlands of Glencolmcille. There was a good committee there and a lot of good work was done to the church at that time.

In 1993, Bishop Seamus Hegarty told Fr Dinny during a private conversation that he would soon be transferred. As Fr Dinny put it, “He didn’t tell me to where on that occasion, only to say that you’ll be going through the ‘Gap’.” As it later transpired and became official, it was to Raphoe, to replace Canon Patrick Deegan who had retired after twenty one years as parish priest. He was installed on 5th September 1993 on the day of the All Ireland Hurling Final. It was a sad day for the parishioners in one sense knowing that Canon Deegan was retiring but also a very happy day knowing that Fr McGettigan would be taking over, having been in the parish previously.

Fr Dinny recalls that Canon Deegan was a man of great faith and very dedicated to his priestly duties. He was a man of great experience and knowledge. Both of them got on well with only very occasional disagreements. As Fr Dinny put it “Canon Deegan’s bark was worse than his bite” and so say all of us.

As the new parish priest, Fr Dinny wasted no time in getting to know his parishioners and members of other denominations. During his daily walks he would have paid many visits to people in their homes and would have felt very welcome. A great source of help to him was the setting up of a parish council early in the new millennium.

He managed to get very good parish-oriented people involved and a lot of great work was carried out including major renovations to St. Eunan’s Church in 2003/2004 and later, the creation of a new cemetery and the replacing of the church roof. He recalls his work in the schools with great fondness particularly his years as chaplain in Deele College where a great welcome always awaited him. He found a great spirit among the teaching staff there, with very good principals who suited the place very well.

To say that Fr Dinny is much travelled would be putting it very mildly because for twenty one years, up until 2008 when the ship was decommissioned, his Summer holidays were spent as chaplain on the QE2 cruise ship, travelling to many parts of the world. Some of the well known people that he would have met on board included Alan Hansen, the former Liverpool footballer, Eric Bristow, former world darts champion, Buzz Aldrin, who was the second man to walk on the moon. He also has photographic evidence in his home of meeting Esther Rantzen, the TV celebrity.

They were lovely people and very nice and warm to speak to, as indeed all the passengers were, he said. On one occasion on the ship’s deck as he was preparing a homily, he happened to ask a fellow passenger if he had any ideas on the subject matter and unknown to him at that time, the man was Dr. Kenneth Herman, a very eminent psychologist. Dr. Herman is big into physical fitness and is now ninety-seven years old and has a brother who is one hundred years old. He occasionally sends Fr Dinny presents and on one occasion, even though he is non-catholic, he sent him a lovely picture of the Last Supper which hangs in our church in Raphoe. Both of them from that first meeting on the deck until the present day remain the best of friends. “A magnificent man”, said Fr Dinny.

In 2017/2018 he felt the workload getting heavier and now into his seventy-ninth year, his health began to deteriorate and with the suggestion of the bishop, he retired. In the Autumn of 2018, Fr Eamonn Kelly who had been administrator in St. Eunan’s Cathedral, in Letterkenny, was appointed by Bishop Alan McGuckian to replace him as parish priest of Raphoe. In Fr Dinny’s own words, “I was very happy that Fr Eamonn was taking over from me and thank God that he and I have had a good relationship over the years, he is a very good and holy priest and a very spiritual man”.

On his hopes for the Church under the leadership of Pope Leo XIV, he is confident that the new pope will continue to move forward with the principle of “synodality” which means the entire people of God journeying together in the Life and Mission of the Church, which was the brainchild of the late Pope Francis. As Fr Dinny put it, “the Holy Spirit is still in charge”.

His interest in sport has never waned, being a big Glasgow Celtic supporter from a very young age right up to supporting his beloved Finn Harps. He attends Finn Park as often as he can and said that there are great people behind the club. Many are the cups of tea he enjoyed with them at half time during matches. “Standing in the terraces, the atmosphere is generally good as indeed the language can be sometimes too, mind you, very largely” he said. When asked for his opinion as to whether “Sam” will come back to the hills, he said “that with Michael Murphy back on board, there is no reason as to why it can’t come back this year”.

He believes that physical fitness is very important and that sport and exercise is very good in that regard. One of the things that he would recommend to people is keeping fit because when you are fit, everything becomes easier. Good advice indeed from someone who puts daily exercise second only to that of his priestly ministry. We all hope and pray that Fr Dinny will enjoy many more years of good health and happiness and that the good LORD will continue to pour out abundant blessings on His good and faithful servant.

There is no doubt that Friday 20th June is going to be a great occasion in the life of a much loved and respected priest. Everyone is invited and encouraged to come along and share in marking this great milestone in the life of Canon Denis McGettigan.