The Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, the Right Reverend Dr Paul Colton, is pleased to announce that he has appointed the Reverend Denis MacCarthy, Incumbent of Bandon Union of Parishes, to be Prebendary of Kilbrittain and Holy Trinity in the Cathedral Church of Saint Fin Barre, Cork and to be Prebendary of Donoughnmore in the Cathedral Church of Saint Colman, Cloyne.

Canon Denis MacCarthy grew up in Gurranabraher on the northside of Cork City with his four sisters Diana, Ellen, Mary and Veronica. His parents were the Late Eileen and Colm Mac Carthy,

He attended the North Presentation Convent, The North Mon and Edmund Rice College.  Dún Laoghaire When he left school his first job was as a delivery boy in Erinville Maternity Hospital in Cork. In 1980 he went to Maynooth to study for the priesthood and was ordained in Christ the King, Turners Cross in 1984.

Upon leaving the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church, he worked for eighteen years with early school leavers and teenagers at risk. He also worked as a Taxi Driver and was a member of Cork Taxi Co-op.

Canon MacCarthy recounts how he journeyed back into ministry:

I never thought that I would ever go back into Ministry, but having completed the Bishop’s Certificate in Theology in Cork, I felt the call begin to stir again in my soul.

Sponsored by Bishop Paul, I entered the Church of Ireland Theological College in 2004. In May of the following year I was privileged to be licensed as a Curate for Bandon Union of Parishes, where I served under Dean Nigel Dunne and the late Canon Paddy Hewitt.

In 2008, I was instituted as Rector of Mallow Union of Parishes, where as a family we spent two very happy years. On All Saints Day, 1st November 2010, I was instituted as Rector of Bandon Union of Parishes and have spent ten very happy years here so far.   

On that Sunday morning in the late eighties when I slipped quietly into the back pew of St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, little did I think that it would become my spiritual home, that it would help me pick up the broken pieces of my life, refresh me and lead me back to ministry. I continue to endeavour to love God, love my neighbour and try not to make a hash of it.

Canon MacCarthy is married to Noelle Burke, and they have two daughters, Nell and Beth, who attend Bandon Grammar School. Noelle works part-time as a school nurse in the Lavanagh Centre in Beaumount in Cork.