Bishop Brendan Leahy
(28/03/1960)
Bishop Brendan Leahy, an Irish Roman Catholic prelate and theologian, was born in Dublin on 28 March 1960. He is the third of four children to Maurice Leahy and Treasa Moriarty, married in 1951, who were both teachers in Dublin.
Bishop Brendan’s family lived for several years in Crumlin parish, Dublin, where he was baptised, made his first communion and was confirmed. Though the family moved to Ballyroan, Rathfarnham when Brendan was six years old, he continued to attend St. Damian’s National school in Crumlin where his parents were school principals. He studied civil law at University College Dublin, theology, spirituality, and psychology at Mater Dei Institute of Education, and was called to the bar in 1983. Leahy then completed undergraduate studies in philosophy and theology before being ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Dublin in 1986.
Leahy served in various parishes and educational institutions in Dublin, engaging with the Focolare Movement and furthering his theological studies in Rome from 1983 to 1991. He was appointed to Clonskeagh Parish, Dublin, in 1991 before joining the staff of Clonliffe College and Mater Dei Institute of Education. Leahy’s involvement with Mater Dei Institute continued when Clonliffe College closed in 1999, and he also served as a parish chaplain in Lusk parish. In 2004, he moved to the Focolare Centre in Co. Kildare and was appointed a professor of Systematic Theology at St. Patrick’s College in 2006.
On 10 January 2013, Leahy was appointed as the Bishop of Limerick and ordained on 14 April 2013 at St. John’s Cathedral.
