Bishop of Meath
Thomas Deenihan. Tom Deenihan was born in the parish of Blackpool in Cork city on 20 June 1967. He attended the North Monastery Christian Brothers School in the city. After completing post-primary education, he studied in the national seminary of Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth. He was ordained a deacon by Bishop Michael Smith, Bishop of Meath, in Maynooth on 1 April 1990. On 1 June 1991 he was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Cork & Ross by the late Bishop Michael Murphy. Since his ordination as a priest, Bishop-elect Deenihan worked in Glanmire Parish (1991-1994), taught in Saint Goban’s College Bantry (1994-2003) during which time he also worked in the parishes of Schull, Kealkil and Bantry. During that time also he undertook a Masters and Doctoral Degree in Education. In 2003, Bishop John Buckley, Bishop of Cork & Ross, appointed him as Diocesan Advisor for Post-Primary Catechetics and, in 2006, as Diocesan Secretary and Diocesan Education Secretary. On a national level, Bishop-elect Deenihan has served as the General Secretary of the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association from 2013 to 2016, and as acting-executive secretary to the Council for Education and to the Commission for Catholic Education and Formation of the Irish Episcopal Conference from 2016 to date. Bishop-elect Deenihan is: a member of the Honan Governors at University College Cork; a member of Mercy Care South; a Diocesan Public Juridic Person for the Mercy University Hospital in Cork; chair of the Board of Directors of the Christian Leadership in Education Office. In 2017 Bishop John Buckley appointed him a Canon and a member of the Cathedral Chapter in Cork.