Priest and girlfriend in hiding with their child

A 73-YEAR-OLD Co Limerick-born curate and his partner were in hiding at the home of a relative in Dundalk, Co Louth, last night with their two- month-old love child.

The woman, aged 31, whom he calls his ‘girlfriend’ gave birth last November.

A close friend yesterday said the child was lucky to have Fr Maurice ‘Mossie’ Dillane as a father.

A number of people who have known Fr Dillane for years, rallied around the priest on RTÉ radio.

Fr Dillane, a native of Templeglantine, Co Limerick, has moved from Co Galway where he served as a curate.

His family still live in Templeglantine and he also has relatives in Co Louth.

He was attached to the diocese of Clonfert since he returned home on retirement from Texas.

Former priest Jim Kennedy described Fr Dillane as both a friend and a great priest. He said Fr Dillane would be very conscious that he and the mother of his child would have to stay together.

Mr Kennedy told RTÉ Radio’s Joe Duffy that having a baby with a younger woman at his age would not be a predicament for Fr Dillane.

“He is a very fresh man and plays off a handicap of six or something at golf. A very energetic man. There are people who are old at 50 and there are people still young going into their 80s.”

Fr Dillane, he said, was a very charming man.

“I would say Mossie went to Bishop Kirby when the baby was born and said ‘I have a baby now, so what do we do from here on in?’ - because Mossy would believe that compulsory celibacy is rubbish and it’s only around the corner when (we have) married priests. Bishop (Willie) Walsh has already opened the debate,” he said.

Mr Kennedy said Fr Dillane had told him he had a girlfriend and that he was not a bit worried about it.

“What he has done now in my view is positive and dropped a clanger on the deadly silence of the Church on priesthood and celibacy,” he said.

Mr Kennedy said he left the priesthood in 1977 and got married.

Addressing Fr Dillane on the RTÉ Liveline programme, he said: “Welcome to the club.”

Mr Kennedy said there was a big constituency in the Irish Church, including priests, sisters and laity who believe compulsory celibacy will have to end due to falling vocations.

He said Fr Dillane was a great priest who spent his days in Galway visiting the elderly in nursing homes and the sick in hospitals.

Another friend, Liam Keane, told Liveline that Fr Dillane was a wonderful, caring man and what had happened was no great wonder.

“I can’t see anything wrong with it myself. Mossie is a wonderful man, a caring man and the child will be very lucky to have a father like Mossie,” he said.

Mr Kennedy said Fr Dillane had always been his own man and was prepared to take on his superiors on issues he regarded as matters of principle.

He recalled Fr Dillane was not long in a parish in San Antonio, Texas, when he was ordered by his parish priest to read off a list from the altar of parishioners and the sums of money they gave the church in Lenten dues. Fr Dillane refused.

Mr Kennedy said: “He told the parish priest ‘no way that’s an embarrassment’.”

The priest then proceeded to get a young curate to do the money roll call.

“When the young curate got up to read it out, Mossie was in the sacristy and he pulled the plug on the sound system. He was that kind of guy,” said Mr Kennedy.

Fr Dillane is a brother of the late Canon Eamonn Dillane who was parish priest in Mungret.

Fr Dillane was serving as curate in Looscaun, a townland attached to the village parish of Woodford in south-east Co Galway up to this week.

He previously was curate in a rural parish near Ballinasloe where it is understood he began a relationship with the mother of his child.

Bishop John Kirby of Clonfert met with the pastoral council from Fr Dillane’s parish last Saturday after rumours of the relationship and the baby spread.

In a statement, Bishop Kirby said he had met the priest and the woman and Fr Dillane had ceased to work in the diocese.

As it was a private matter, Bishop Kirby said he would make no further comment.