Archbishop Dermot Clifford
Archbishop Dermot Clifford was born in 1939 in Ballymacelligott, Co. Kerry. His parents were farmers. He attended Clogher NS; St. Brendan’s College, Killarney; St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth; The Irish College Rome; University College, Cork; the London School of Economics and Loughborough University. He was ordained a priest in Rome on 22nd February 1964; ordained Coadjutor Archbishop of Cashel & Emly in Thurles on 9th March 1986; installed as Archbishop of Cashel & Emly on 12thSeptember 1988. He served as Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Cloyne from March 2009 to January 2013. Archbishop Clifford retired as Archbishop of Cashel & Emly on 22nd November 2014.
Archbishop Clifford was Chairman of the Bishops’Conference Department of Planning and Communications, Chairman of the Bishops’ Council for Research and Development, Member of the Bishops’ Finance and General Purposes Committee, Member of St. Patrick’s College Maynooth Development Committee and Trustee of Trócaire, Member of the Governing Body of University College Cork and Trustee of Mary Immaculate College, Limerick and St. Patrick’s College, Thurles and the Irish College, Rome. The Archbishop was the fifth successor of Archbishop Croke as Patron of the Gaelic Athletic Association and he was also Patron of Bóthar. As Chairman of the Bishops’ Conference Department of Planning and Communications, the Archbishop oversaw the preparation and publication of the pastoral reflection on the environment, The Cry of the Earth.
His favourite pastimes are reading, walking and attending Gaelic games and parish functions where he meets with the parishioners.