Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western can ...

Noel Conway is a Catholic priest of the

Diocese of Down and Connor The Diocese of Down and Connor, ( ga, Deoise an Dúin agus Chonaire) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Northern Ireland. It is one of eight suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of the me ...

and former president of the prestigious

St. Malachy's College St Malachy's College, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is the oldest Catholic diocesan college in Ulster. The college's alumni and students are known as Malachians. History The college, founded by Bishop William Crolly, opened on the feast of Sain ...

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Early life and education

He attended

St Mary's Christian Brothers' Grammar School, Belfast St Mary's Christian Brothers' Grammar School (St Mary's CBGS) is a Catholic Church, Roman Catholic boys' grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. History The origins of the school can be traced to St Mary's School which was established in ...

, before entering St. Malachy's College as a seminarian and then attended

Queen's University, Belfast , mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back? , top_free_label = , top_free = , top_free_label1 = , top_free1 = , top_free_label2 = , top_free2 = , established = , closed = , type = Public research university , parent = ...

. He took a science degree, specialising in physics and then studied theology at the St. Patrick's College, Maynooth. Conway was ordained to the priesthood on 23 June 1957 and has spent the greater part of his priestly career as a teacher in

.,. In 1983 he succeeded Patrick Walsh as president of St Malachy's College. One of his most significant, if tangential, achievements was to preserve the O'Laverty collections of historical papers and books that today forms an important resource for the wider history of Belfast. He served as president until 1994 and then after recuperation from illness was, in 1995, appointed parish priest of

Strangford Strangford (from Old Norse ''Strangr fjörðr'', meaning "strong sea-inlet") is a small village at the mouth of Strangford Lough, on the Lecale peninsula in County Down, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 475 at the 2001 Census. On the ...

in County Down.

Family background

He is the youngest of three brothers who became priests in the Diocese of Down and Connor - the eldest was

Cardinal William Conway William John Cardinal Conway (22 January 1913 – 17 April 1977) was an Irish cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland from 1963 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate ...

, then

Joseph Conway who also taught at

and who in 1967, was appointed the founding president of the then St. Patrick's College, Knock.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 20th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Alumni of St Patrick's College, Maynooth {{Ireland-RC-clergy-stub