By Danny Martin
ON Friday evening, June 20, in St. Eunan’s Church, Raphoe, people from all over the parish, diocese and far beyond will gather for a Mass of Thanksgiving on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of the Ordination of Canon Denis McGettigan, PE.
It marks a great milestone in the life of a much loved priest who is better known to everyone as Fr Dinny. Immediately after the Mass, everyone is invited to Deele College for light refreshments.
Fr. Dinny was born in his beloved Kilmacrennan in 1939 and received his primary education in the local two teacher school which had around 70 pupils enrolled.
A fond memory he has is of the class teacher, Mrs McCafferty bringing the children to her home for tea on the morning of their First Holy Communion.
As Dinny moved through the classes, the big target was the primary certificate or the ‘Grand National’ of the time as he called it. He and five others successfully sat their primary certificate where at that time scholarships to the Gaeltacht were available for entry into St. Eunan’s College in Letterkenny.
Unfortunately on the morning of departure for the Gaeltacht he became ill and was unable to go which meant that he spent another year at primary school. “Providentially, that extra year was very valuable to me as I developed a very keen interest in education and study”, he said.
In 1953 on the prompting of his uncle Fr. Oliver McGettigan, Dinny’s father enrolled him in St. Eunan’s College on a Saturday and he started on the following Monday morning, the first day of the new term.
Fr. Arthur McLoone was the college president, he was a very good singer and a well known man. Both he and Fr. Tommy Doherty were a great combination. Among the staff at that time were Frs. Finnegan, Cunnea, Bonner, McCaul and Muldoon. John Wilson who played senior football for Cavan was a great classic teacher and went on to become Tánaiste in later years.
During the Summer of 1958 having obtained a very good Leaving Certificate, Dinny decided that he would go to St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth. Starting on September 16, he was now leaving home for a longer spell.
At that time the Raphoe Diocese had ten or 12 students in training. Fr. Willie McMenamin was in his second last year and Fr. Desmond Sweeney was in his last year. There were 89 students in Dinny’s class and between 500 and 600 students in total in the college. One of his teachers was Fr. Tom Fee who later went on to become Cardinal Tomás O’ Fiaich.
Fr. Dinny’s degree was in Irish and History. He became very keen on Irish due no doubt to his mother being a native of Barnes in Termon, where there was a great deal of Irish spoken.
Having obtained his degree, he then did four years of theology. His classmate was Fr. Dan Carr and both of them, having been great friends since 1953, worked together on a lot of things subsequently.
He and his classmates were ordained on June 20, 1965. As there was no bishop in the Raphoe Diocese at that time, the ordaining prelate was the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. John Charles McQuaid.
About a week or so later a new bishop was consecrated for Raphoe, Bishop Anthony McFeely and he appointed Fr. Dinny and Fr. Carr to St. Eunan’s College.
Fr. Dinny said that some of the teachers who taught him were still there and Fr Cunnea was now president. He spent two years teaching there and then went to Terenure College in Dublin to do his HDip.
Having obtained his HDip with honours he returned to St. Eunan’s College and remained there until 1973. He was then appointed chaplain to Loreto College in Milford and a curate in his own native parish of Kilmacrennan, in Golan.
Dinny said Loreto was a very good school and well managed by the talented nuns there.
In his final year in Golan, he went through a period of ill-health brought on no doubt by the death of his father in 1980. While in St. John of God’s he met Fr. Willie Nugent whom he described as a tremendous priest and both of them became life-long friends.
In 1982 Fr. Dinny was appointed as curate in Drumkeen and remained there until 1986. This was his first real introduction to the Raphoe parish having spent a short while there in 1967 while teaching in St. Eunan’s College, filling in after the death of Fr. Michael Carr who was parish priest at that time.
He found the people of Drumkeen to be very welcoming and got to know the Raphoe parish quite well. He remembers fondly the Three Days of Faith that were held in the parish and the turnout at Mass and confession was very inspiring.
After the famous priest, Fr. James McDyer retired in 1986 due to ill-health, Fr. Dinny was appointed as parish priest to succeed him in Carrick. He said that it was a lovely part of the county with a good spread of Irish spoken throughout the parish and townlands of Glencolmcille.
In 1993, Bishop Seamus Hegarty told Fr. Dinny during a private conversation that he would soon be transferred. As Fr. Dinny put it, “He didn’t tell me to where on that occasion, only to say that you’ll be going through the Gap.”
As it later transpired and became official, it was to Raphoe, to replace Canon Patrick Deegan who had retired after 21 years as parish priest.
Fr Dinny was installed on September 5,1993 on the day of the All Ireland Hurling Final.
As the new parish priest, he wasted no time in getting to know his parishioners and members of other denominations. During his daily walks he would pay many visits to people in their homes and remembers being made feel very welcome.
A great source of help to him was the setting up of a parish council early in the new millennium. He managed to get very good parish-orientated people involved and a lot of great work was carried out including major renovations to St. Eunan’s Church in 20032004 and later, the creation of a new cemetery and the replacing of the church roof.
He recalls his work in the schools with great fondness particularly his years as chaplain in Deele College where a great welcome always awaited him. He found a great spirit among the teaching staff there, with very good principals who suited the place very well.
To say that Canon Dinny is much travelled would be putting it very mildly because for 21 years, up until 2008 when the ship was decommissioned, his summer holidays were spent as chaplain on the QE2 cruise ship, travelling to many parts of the world.
Some of the well known people that he would have met on board included Alan Hansen, the former Liverpool footballer, Eric Bristow, former world darts champion, and Buzz Aldrin, who was the second man to walk on the moon.
He also has photographic evidence in his home of meeting Esther Rantzen, the TV celebrity. They were lovely people and very nice and warm to speak to, as indeed all the passengers were, he said.
In 20172018 Fr Dinny felt the workload getting heavier and now into his 79th year, his health began to deteriorate and with the suggestion of the bishop, he retired.
In the Autumn of 2018, Fr. Eamonn Kelly who had been administrator in St. Eunan’s Cathedral, was appointed by Bishop Alan McGuckian to replace him as parish priest of Raphoe.
“I was very happy that Fr. Eamonn was taking over from me and thank God that he and I have had a good relationship over the years. He is a very good and holy priest and a very spiritual man,” he said.
Canon Dinny’s interest in sport has never waned, being a big Glasgow Celtic supporter from a very young age right up to supporting his beloved Finn Harps. He attends Finn Park as often as he can and said that there are great people behind the club. Many are the cups of tea he enjoyed with them at half time during matches.
He believes that physical fitness is very important and one of the things that he would recommend to people is keeping fit because when you are fit, everything becomes easier. Good advice indeed from someone who puts daily exercise second only to that of his priestly ministry.
We all hope and pray that Fr. Dinny will enjoy many more years of good health and happiness and that the good Lord will continue to pour out abundant blessings on His good and faithful servant.
There is no doubt that Friday, June 20 is going to be a great occasion in the life of a much loved and respected priest. Everyone is invited and encouraged to come along and share in marking this great milestone in the life of Canon Denis McGettigan.
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