Aidan Troy

He was born in Bray, County Wicklow in 1946.[3] His father worked on the railways and his mother looked after him, his brother and sister.[3]

He graduated from University College Dublin with a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy in 1967 and from Clonliffe College with a bachelor of divinity degree in 1971.[3]

He was ordained around Christmas 1971.[2]

He was posted from Rome to the Ardoyne area of Belfast, where he became parish priest.[1] He also became head of the board of governors of Holy Cross Primary school, a Catholic school in a Protestant area.[1]

In June 2001 Loyalist protestors began picketing the school, claiming that Catholics were regularly attacking their homes.[1] The harassment escalated from sectarian taunting to stones, bricks, fireworks and blast bombs after the school holidays.[1] He walked with the parents and children daily for three months.[1]

During this time he received a series of death threats.[1] On one occasion police offered to escort him to the border with the Republic of Ireland as there had been a threat to kill him that weekend.[1] He turned down that offer as well as an offer of the use of an apartment in Belfast owned by the Irish government.[1]

In April 2003 a 17 year old took their own life in Holy Cross and the experience he had dealing with the deceased's family led him to publish a book, Out Of The Shadow: Responding To Suicide in 2009.[3]

In 2008 he was posted to a parish in Paris. He was reluctant to leave, but he obeyed his superiors.[2]

He used to relax by playing golf but started cycling in Paris.[3] He is also a fan of Accrington Stanley F.C.[3]

He suggested in 2014 that the French practice of separating religious and secular education is something that might be explored in Ireland.[1]