Bishop Neill selected for Cashel and Ossory see

THE new Church of Ireland bishop of Cashel and Ossory is the Right Rev John Neill, currently Bishop of Tuam, Killala, and Achonry. He succeeds Bishop Noel Willoughby, who retired from the see of Cashel and Ossory, after 17 years in the post.

Bishop Neill (51) was selected by vote at an electoral college gathering of 52 members in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, yesterday.

Bishop Neill said last night he had heard the news with a sense of shock that he would be leaving the west after 11 years. Speaking from his home at Crossmolina, Co Mayo, he noted, however, that he would be going back among people he knew.

Prior to becoming Bishop of Tuam in 1986, he was Dean of Waterford for two years. He had also been registrar of the diocese of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin (1971-74), as well as bishop's vicar at St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny over the same period.

Bishop Neill is a Dublin man, educated at Blackrock and Sandford Park schools, before attending TCD and Cambridge university. He became a priest in 1970. He married Ms Betty Cox in 1968 and they have three sons.

His election to Cashel and Ossory, places a question mark over the future of the diocese of Tuam, Killala, and Achonry, which has a Church of Ireland populations of less than 3,000.