It was with great sadness that we received news of the death on 10 April of Canon Edward (Ned) McSweeney.
Please pray for the repose of Canon McSweeney’s soul and remember his family and friends in your prayers at this time. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.
For information, his funeral will take place at The Church of the Sacred Heart at Kiskeam, County Cork, Ireland, at 12 noon on Saturday, 13 April.
Canon McSweeney was born in Ireland on 20 July 1926. He studied for the priesthood at All Hallows College, Dublin and was ordained there on 17 June 1951. A few months later he arrived in Yorkshire and was appointed as curate to St Paulinus’ Parish in Dewsbury. The following year he moved to St Patrick’s, Huddersfield and in 1957 he was appointed to St Augustine’s, Leeds where he remained until 1962. In that year he was appointed to St Joseph’s, Hunslet and in 1967 he crossed the city again, this time to St Gregory’s Parish.
In 1968 Bishop Wheeler gave him his first appointment as a Parish Priest, to the Blessed English Martyrs at Askern, near Doncaster (now in the Diocese of Hallam). Two years later he went to St Edmund’s, Airedale and in 1976 he returned to St Gregory’s Parish in Leeds. In January 1988 he was asked by Bishop Konstant to become the Parish Priest of St Stephen’s, Skipton and in the same year he was appointed to the Cathedral Chapter. Canon McSweeney – always known to his fellow priests as ‘Ned’ – celebrated the Golden Jubilee of his ordination at Skipton in 2001 and retired from active ministry the following year. He returned to his native Ireland, and from 2002 until the time of his death, at the age of ninety-two, he lived in the village of Kiskeam, near Mallow in County Cork.
Canon McSweeney’s ministry in the Diocese of Leeds spanned the whole of the second half of the twentieth century, a period of unprecedented change in both Church and society. Throughout these years he gave loyal service to his Bishops and to the people of the various parishes to which he was appointed – half a century of priestly ministry that will be remembered with deep gratitude.
May he Rest in Peace.
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