Dean of Armagh to become new Diocese bishop

Dean of Armagh to become new Bishop of Tuam


Anton McNulty

The Dean of Armagh, the Very Revd Patrick W Rooke has been appointed as the new Bishop of the United Dioceses of Tuam, Killala and Achonry.
The fifty-six-year-old was last week elected to succeed the Rt Revd Dr Richard Henderson, who has taken up the position of Honorary Assistant Bishop in Carlisle Diocese.
Dean Rooke (pictured) said he was delighted to accept the appointment and looked forward to leading the clergy and people of Tuam, Killala and Achonry at this important time for the diocese. The Dean said he would take his time to consider carefully the implications for himself as bishop and for the United Dioceses, and that he would encourage the clergy and people to share that journey with him.
The new appointment will be a homecoming of sorts for Dean Rooke whose mother’s family came from Mayo and his sister and other family members live in the diocese. He has served as the Dean of Armagh since 2006 and has spent his entire ministry since his ordination in 1979 in Northen Ireland.
“Having spent the past thirty-three years in Northern Ireland, returning to the Republic will be different,” he said. “However, I have found throughout my ministry that the experience gained growing up in a rectory family in Dublin has prepared me for most things.
“To have had the oversight of St Patrick’s Cathedral and of Armagh Public Library for the past five years has been a real privilege and we will be saying farewell with heavy hearts.”
Most Revd Alan Harper, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland welcomed the election of Dean Rooke as the new bishop.
“I very much look forward to Dean Rooke taking leadership of the Church of Ireland people in the geographically very large diocese of the West. He brings many gifts of leadership, imagination and spirituality to the task,” he said.
Dean Rooke is married to Alison and they have three grown-up children, Emily, Nicholas and Susanna.
The date of institution has yet to be announced.