A few weeks ago we welcomed to St Aidan’s Fr Philip Mulryne who is a Dominican priest, a native of Belfast and currently based as a teacher and chaplain at Dominican College Secondary school in Newbridge, Co. Kildare.
Philip was a young talented footballer who signed a professional contract with Manchester United at 16. His team mates at the time included Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Roy Keane. Philip stayed at Manchester United until 1999 when he signed for Norwich City where he became club captain and became a first team regular. During his professional career he also played for Northern Ireland and earned 28 caps. Along this amazing journey of success, fame and wealth, Philip lost the practise of his faith. But after a while he found that material things did not satisfy what his heart began to long for. He took some time out of football, began to reflect, read and pray. Slowly, a new peace returned to his heart as he began to reconnect with the faith of his childhood. During this time of greater commitment to prayer, a crazy idea began to arise in his mind and heart – to be a priest and to serve God in this way. The idea became strong and consuming until eventually he was guided and directed to taking his first steps towards seminary where he entered in 2009. He spent two years in seminary in Belfast, then one year in Rome before joining the Dominican order in 2012. He was finally ordained priest in July 2017 before being appointed to Newbridge.
In this interview Fr Philip shares his inspiring story.
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