Former Bishop of Killaloe Willie Walsh dies aged 90

Bishop Walsh died at his home in Ennis, Co Clare, on Tuesday night having recently celebrated his 90th birthday

Bishop Willie Walsh outside St Flannan's College where he received his secondary school education, and where he would go on to teach. File Picture: Eamon Ward

The former Bishop of the Diocese of Killaloe, Willie Walsh, has died at the age of 90.

Bishop Walsh died at his home in Ennis, Co Clare, on Tuesday night. He turned 90 just last month.

A native of Roscrea in Co Tipperary, he attended primary school at Corville National School and Roscrea Boy's National School, before attending secondary school at St Flannan’s College in Ennis, a school he would maintain close ties with for the rest of his life.

After school, he won a scholarship to St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree while studying to enter the priesthood.

Willie Walsh was ordained a priest in 1959 and went on to complete a doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical Lateran University.

In 1963, he returned to St Flannan’s College as a teacher of physics, mathematics, science, and religion.

During his more than 25 years working at the school, Bishop Walsh was also heavily involved with the college’s hurling squad, coaching it to five Dr Harty Cup and Dr Croke Cup titles between 1976 and 1987.

He was appointed curate of Ennis Cathedral in 1988, and became administrator of the cathedral two years later.

In 1994, he was appointed as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese, before being ordained Bishop of the Diocese of Killaloe in October of that year, following the death of Bishop Michael Harty.

In 1999, Bishop Walsh made headlines around the world when he began a “Pilgrimage of Reconciliation” around his diocese as a way of apologising for child sexual abuse scandals within the Church.

At the time, he told the congregation that the three-week journey had been undertaken as a way of “recognising, acknowledging, painful though it may be, serious wrongs have been done, and deep hurts have been caused by people working with our church down the years”.

In 2015, the he criticised the Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin for comments in which he claimed that the passing of the marriage equality referendum was a “defeat for humanity”.

“There has been lots of disasters in the world but I certainly would not support the belief that the referendum was among them,” Bishop Walsh told RTÉ Radio at the time.

The following year, Bishop Walsh published a book of memoirs titled: No Crusader.

On January 16, 2010 - his 75th birthday - Bishop Walsh submitted his episcopal resignation to the Congregation for Bishops, in accordance with canon law.

He was also appointed President of Clare GAA in 2023. Such was his love for hurling, he attended last month's Harty Cup Final, in which St Flannan’s College featured.

In a statement, the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference said Bishop Walsh was “dearly loved by the many whose lives he touched in his extraordinary pastoral ministry”.

Current Bishop of Killaloe, Fintan Monahan said Bishop Walsh’s episcopal motto was “Cinéaltas Chríost — The Gentleness of Christ — and his ministry radiated that in his care for the poor, pastoral support to survivors of abuse, to anyone who was in trouble, and anyone struggling in life”.

“He will be sadly missed by his family who meant so much to him, by his wide circle of friends and clergy and laity in the diocese of Killaloe,” he added.

Clare TD Cathal Crowe said Bishop Walsh was “known to all he met as a wonderfully warm and gentle man, who always had a kind word or a thorough analysis of the latest sporting action to share”.