It is announced today that the Dean of Cloyne, the Very Reverend Alan Marley, is to be the new Church of Ireland Chaplain at University College Cork.  Alan will leave Cloyne Union of Parishes after Christmas to take up his new position.

Alan Marley started in full time ministry with the Church Army; commissioned to be Chaplain to the Oxford House in Bethnal Green, East London in 1982. He then moved to France and lived and worked for two years as a volunteer at the Taizé Community. Returning in 1987, he trained for ordination at the Queen’s College, Birmingham, completing his degree in Theology at the University of Birmingham. Ordained in 1989, he served his curacy in the parish of Blandford Forum, Dorset, in the west of England. He then moved into sector ministry becoming the Chaplain at Aylesbury Prison, a long-term institution for Young Offenders.

In 1997 he moved to Cork, Cloyne and Ross and became Rector of the Fermoy Union. In 2003 he was appointed as the Rector of Cloyne Union and Dean of Cloyne. Within the Diocese Alan has served as Bishop’s Chaplain, Rural Dean and is currently the Director of Ordinands. He is married to Anne and they have 5 children.

The Very Reverend Alan Marley

Alan said:

We are sad to leave the Cloyne Union, where we have enjoyed such a happy and important time in our lives; and at the same time I am excited by the opportunity, and challenge, to serve as Chaplain amongst the students and staff at University College Cork. As Archbishop Richard Clarke noted in a recent article, the role of a chaplain is … “to be an active and visible presence of the Church as a whole in that place, among those who may or may not have any interest or engagement in faith of any kind”. I look forward to exploring all that this entails in this next step of ministry.

Commenting on the news of Alan Marley’s appointment, the Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, the Right Reverend Dr Paul Colton, said:

Alan Marley is an ideal person for this work of the Church in University College Cork.  He brings to this important post in the Diocese diversity of experience, insight, pastoral compassion and the ability to communicate warmly and in a challenging way with people of all ages.

University College Cork, founded in 1845, has more than 20,000 students (including 14,000 undergraduates) and 2,800 members of staff (of which nearly 800 are faculty).  In 2017 it was named as the Sunday Times Irish University of the Year.  It is situated on the south bank of the River Lee close to Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, in that part of the area where it is said that St Fin Barre founded his monastery, around which the town and city of Cork grew.