Pat Buckley (priest)

Buckley was born in Tullamore, County Offaly, Ireland.[2] He was the eldest of 17 children, 6 of whom died without passing infancy[3] His father was a trade union official who later became a barrister and his socialist views influenced his son Pat.[3] Buckley decided that he wanted to become a priest at the age of three.[3]

He studied for the priesthood in Waterford and was ordained there in 1976.[4] He later gained a master's degree in politics and social anthropology from Queen's University Belfast.[3]

His first posting was to St Peter's in the Lower Falls area of West Belfast.[5] Buckley claimed that, believing the quality of the priests' accommodation to be much higher than properties in poverty-stricken area in which it was located, he clashed with his fellow clergy.[5]

During the 1981 Irish hunger strike, Buckley celebrated Mass in the Maze prison.[5] During this time he met and spoke with prisoner Bobby Sands, the leader of the IRA prisoners participating in the hunger strike, predicting that Sands' dedication to his beliefs would lead to the hunger striker's death, which occurred on 5 May 1981.[6]

Following disagreements with Cardinal Cahal Daly, he was sent to Kilkeel parish in 1983.[7] He claimed that Cardinal Daly later offered to move him to an Australian parish on account of Buckley's liberalism before deciding on transferring Buckley to Larne, a mainly Protestant town, in 1984.[5] Daly then suspended Buckley from the priesthood in 1986.[7] Buckley continued to practice independently and refused to move out of the parochial home. In 2011 he brought a legal case against the diocese of Down and Connor claiming Squatters' Rights. In January 2012, agreement was reached between the parties which allowed Buckley to remain in the property.[8]

He organised bi-weekly masses and officiated at marriages of divorcees who wished to remarry, as well as baptising babies from mixed marriages and blessing same-sex couples.[7] In August 2016, Buckley claimed to have married over 3,000 couples.[5] On 19 May 1998 he was ordained a bishop by Michael Cox[9] in June 1998, Jim Cantwell, director of the Irish Catholic Press and Information Office, said that Cox's consecration of Buckley was valid but illicit.[9] However, the Catholic Media Office of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales has subsequently stated “that it doubts that the bishop's episcopal consecration is valid".[10] In response, both Cox and Buckley were excommunicated by the Catholic Church.[9]

He was elected to Larne Borough Council in the 1989 Northern Ireland local elections, but lost his seat at the following elections in 1993.[2]

In December 2013, Buckley pled guilty and was convicted for officiating at 14 sham marriages.[11] His defence was that his actions had been motivated by "strong compassion" for the illegal immigrants' situations. The judge noted that Buckley had "had a genuine affinity with these illegal immigrants" but had received financial reward and "lost face and standing in the community" as a result of his actions. [12] [13] Buckley received a 3-and-a-half-year sentence, which was suspended for three years because he was being treated for HIV.[12][13]

In October 1999 he announced that he was gay.[7] In February 2010 at the age of 57 he married his boyfriend of three years, 32-year-old Eduardo Yanga from The Philippines, in a ceremony in Larne.[14]