John brings life experience to ministry

A NEWLY ordained priest is hoping his life experience as a husband, father and grandfather will give him a greater understanding of his parishioners.

Limerick widower John O’Byrne was ordained at St John’s Cathedral in Limerick yesterday by the Most Rev Dr Dermot Clifford, Archbishop of Cashel and Emly and the Apostolic Administrator of Cloyne Diocese.

Family and friends surrounded the 67-year-old for the ordination, the first in the Limerick diocese since June 2009.