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Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland
# listening skills
You may have spotted Dublin's newest priest pulling pints at Tramco
Listening to locals’ problems… Occasionally serving wine… Could Dublin’s pubs be the Church’s next recruiting ground?
DUBLIN’S NEWEST PRIEST honed his listening skills at several well-known pubs in the Rathmines area of Dublin before opting for a religious life.
32-year-old Chris Derwin, from just up the road in Milltown, was ordained alongside another new priest - 41-year-old Paul Glennon – at a ceremony at the Pro-Cathedral yesterday.
After an apprenticeship in the bar trade, he worked at Grace’s and Madigan’s in Rathmines – and also served a stint in bar/nightclub Tramco.
According to a biog provided by the Dublin Archdiocese, he “drifted from his faith in his early teens but returned to his local parish after the age of 16″.
“He struggled with his vocation” and moved to Manchester to work for two years “in a bid to ignore the calling”.
However, the biog says, ”this in fact had the opposite effect and he ended up joining St. Patrick’s seminary in Maynooth in 2008″.
From a young age, Chris was a carer for his grandmother and three uncles and still cares for one elderly uncle today.
His ordination yesterday means he becomes the youngest priest in Dublin.
The other priest ordained at the ceremony, Paul Glennon, is originally from Dunmore in Galway.
A graduate of mechanical engineering at GMIT Galway, he was in his 30s before he began to explore a vocation to the priesthood, and entered Maynooth in 2009.
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