Canon Hayes - 60 Years a Priest

29 July 2008

Celebrations to mark Canon Matthew Hayes’ first 60 years as a priest have been taking place in the diocese and in his native Fethard in County Tipperary in Ireland.  To mark this occasional cliftondiocese.com brings you an extended interview with Canon Hayes.

In our podcast - which you can listen to in the multimedia section on the right - Canon Hayes the journey his life has taken from his childhood in Fethard, through training to become a priest, to the ministry in the West of England that has been so memorable. 

Canon Hayes has also written a couple of books about his life.  One of them, ‘Ever Loved but Lost a While’ has just been published by Lisheen Publications.  His previous book ‘I Slept with Dan’ also proved popular and cliftondiocese.com will be bringing you further news about Canon Hayes’ writing soon.

Canon Hayes has as ministered in all counties in the Clifton Diocese and although now in retirement at Bath, he supplies most weekends for parish priests across Bristol and Bath, allowing the new generation of priests time for a holiday.

Our pictures gallery on the right shows Canon Hayes together with photographs of the beautiful small chapel in which he and fellow retired priests in Bath celebrate Mass each morning.