By Paddy Walsh

IN a café somewhere in Glasgow as the coffee beans percolated a seed was sown.

The young Damien Nejad was enjoying a chat with his aunt, Grace, when she asked him what he had planned to do in his life.

“I might go and study business or something like that,” he replied.

To which she responded: ‘What about the priesthood….?.”

“Initially I said: ‘Ah naw, I don’t think so,” before going away subsequently and thinking that perhaps it was indeed an option for him.

Bishop Philip Boyce, priests and altar servers pictured with Fr Damien Nejad after his farewell Mass at St Eunans Cathedral.

His background – “I had a very interesting start in that regard” – stemmed from growing up in Glasgow having been born to Winnifred Harley, whose parents hailed from Annagry, and to Iranian native, Reza Nejad.

“They had met in a nightclub in Sauchiehall Street and subsequently got married,’ says Fr Damien when he spoke before taking up a new clerical post in the parish of St Johnston, Newtowncunningham, and Killea.

Fr. Damien has visited Annagry in his time but he has never been to Iran. “And I have no intention of going there,” he is fairly firm in his pronouncement.

He received his education at Holyrood Secondary School in the south side of the city near Crosshill Railway Station.

“At the time it was the biggest school in Europe with up to two and a half thousand students. It was massive.”

He remembers one of the teachers asking his first year class where they were going on their summer holidays. ”And they were all saying, Falcarragh, Gaoth Dobhair, Letterkenny, and I, of course, said Annagry.”

Yet another indication of the strong connections between Glasgow and Donegal.

“My auntie Grace was a big influence in my life, taking me to Mass, encouraging me and getting me to do different forms of prayers.”

His decision to enter the priesthood was, he maintains, a gradual process, After that conversation with his aunt, he went away and thought about it more and while it wasn’t a particular motivation, he realised there was a shortage of priests. ”And I thought somebody has to do it. I really increased my praying and got talking to different priests and it all went from there.”

And so Damien Nejad entered the hallowed halls of Maynooth to begin his priestly journey. “My Director of Formation who was in charge of me was a Fr. Paul Pryor from the Diocese of Kilmore and he was amazing. Great priest, great role model. I have the highest regard for him. He encouraged me and helped me along because it was very difficult starting off in the priesthood. Confidence even was a big challenge but he told me, ‘work at this and you can do it’.”

That was 2007 and work at it he did in what was a long and challenging journey.

Fr. Damien was subsequently ordained in St. Eunan’s Cathedral in 2016 by Bishop Philip Boyce. It was for the young man from Glasgow a memorable occasion.

His first priestly port of call was to Northern Ireland when Bishop Boyce sent him to Newry in the Diocese of Dromore on what was to be a short placement.

“They were really pushed for priests there but I was only supposed to be going for six months.”

In the end, it turned out to be a one and a half year placement. “And then when Bishop Alan (McGuckian) was appointed Bishop in the Raphoe Diocese, he brought me back to St Eunan’s Cathedral.

Fr Damien addressing his farewell function at Loreto on Friday last.

“I didn’t want to go initially. It was a totally new experience for me. I had been in Stranorlar for a short while on placement as a student with Fr. Kieran McAteer and Fr. John Joe Duffy and had a good experience with them.

“ I didn’t know much about the Cathedral but it seemed like a wild busy parish and I wondered would I be able to cope with it. I was a bit hesitant at the start but it has turned out to be a real blessing.”

His homilies are generally different from the norm but he has always advocated the Rosary. “Someone asked me yesterday what would I like to be remembered for in the Cathedral and I said if I encouraged people to say the Rosary it’s been worth it.”

Two passions outside his religious duties both begin with the letter ‘C’ – Celtic and coffee shops!

“I used to go all the matches and was a season ticket holder in the late 1990’s”

He has no doubt who his favourite player was in the green and white hoops. “It has to be Henrik Larsson – he was just brilliant,’ says Fr. Damien.

As for his second passion, he was a frequent partaker of cappuccinos and the like in coffee shops around Letterkenny. Almost a season ticket holder in fact!

“I’m not sure if there’s a coffee shop in St. Johnston but there are a couple around Newtowncunningham.”

And he enjoyed one there after saying his first Mass in Killea last Friday morning.

Fr Damien is a firm believer in getting out and about. “There’s no point in sitting in the church waiting for people to come in,” he believes.

He first heard of his new appointment when Cathedral Administrator, Monsignor Kevin Gillespie brought him into his office to inform him of the transfer. “”I was quite shocked and told him straight out that I hadn’t seen that one coming.”

But he has now grown accustomed to the move having spent the past seven years in Letterkenny.

“Some of the greatest blessings come when you accept God’s will and go where you’re called to go.

“It will be a bit different in my new parish than it was in Letterkenny but from what I’ve seen so far, the people seem lovely.”

Fr Damien Nejad with fellow priests as his final Mass at St Eunan’s Cathedral on Friday last.

And following his farewell Mass in St Eunan’s Cathedral and celebratory function in the Loreto Convent canteen last Friday night where many tributes were paid to the departing cleric, this affable priest is no doubt receiving the warmest of welcomes from his new parishioners.