Father Seamus Cunnane, who served as Cardigan's parish priest for 37 years, dies at 92

The Tivy-Side understands he had been in poor health for some time.

Canon Cunnane was ordained to the priesthood on June 12, 1955 at All Hallows College, Dublin, together with 33 other young men.

During an interview in 2005 he recalled how, when he came to Cardigan in 1962 to take over as priest at the town's old Catholic Church in the Strand, he knew the town was where he wanted to settle for a long time.

"The priesthood for me was not about doing a job for five years and constantly moving on, it was about staying with a community and knowing them and being known by them,” he said.

“I felt the ideal was to be in a little town with a little country around it.”

Fr Cunnane proved as good as his word and ended up serving as priest at Our Lady of the Taper Catholic Church until his retirement in 1999.

The church and its hall were built in the early 1970s and Fr Cunnane was closely involved in much of the fundraising for the project.

He would later reflect on marrying some of his congregation as a young priest and ‘baptising their grand-children as an old one.'

June 2015 saw the parish of Our Lady of the Taper celebrate the Diamond Jubilee to his priesthood.

He told his Jubilee congregation: "That is what I mean when I say that this community is my second family.

“When you spend time with people at various times in their lives, sometimes especially hard times, they do become like your family.

“Cardigan people are the most generous of people, and the most generous hearted.”

A keen historian, Fr Cunnane extensively researched the medieval history of Cardigan and its castle and later served as an adviser to the Cadwgan Trust, who spearheaded the huge public campaign to preserve the historic site for future generations.

He also took a keen interest in local planning matters, and was one of the first to criticise plans for a modern shopping mall in the town centre.