Dermot Clifford - Archbishop of Cashel and Emly

Archbishop of Cashel and Emly

The Holy See chose him as Coadjutor Archbishop of Cashel and Emly on 17 December 1985. The Principal Consecrator was Archbishop Thomas Morris; his Principal Co-Consecrators were Archbishop Gaetano Alibrandi and Bishop Diarmaid O'Súilleabháin, the Bishop of Kerry. He was parish priest of Tipperary town for two and a half years. On 12 September 1988 he was installed as Archbishop of Cashel and Emly in a ceremony in Thurles Cathedral, presided over by the late Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich.

A keen footballer in his earlier years, he became the first Kerryman to hold the office of Patron of the Gaelic Athletic Association, in 1989. That same year he was awarded a Ph.D. degree for a thesis on Carers of the Elderly and Handicapped at Loughborough University; this was based on studies he conducted in Kerry just before he left.

Archbishop Clifford has served on the Emigrant Commission of the Bishops' Conference and he helped to set up the Chaplaincy Scheme to the young emigrants in the USA in 1987. He is currently Chairman of the Irish Bishop's Research and Development Commission. He is a Trustee of the Bóthar project, which sends livestock to Uganda and other countries recovering from the effects of war and famine.

On 24 March 2010 it was announced by the Holy See that Bishop Magee had formally resigned from his duties as Bishop of Cloyne and was now bishop emeritus and that Archbishop Clifford, already apostolic administrator there, will remain as such until the appointment of a full-time successor to the Cloyne diocese.