The new Bishop of Raphoe Niall Coll will be installed this afternoon in St Eunan's Cathedral, Letterkenny.
Bishop Coll succeeds Bishop Alan McGuckian, who was appointed as the Bishop of Down and Connor in February 2024.
The appointment marked Pope Leo XIV first appointment of an Irish bishop since the papal election last May.
Monsignor Kevin Gillespie has served as Diocesan Administrator for almost two years.
Bishop Coll, a native of Saint Johnston in east Donegal, is returning to the north west, having served as Bishop of Ossory since January 2023.
When his appointment was announced on 13 November, he told mass goers in Letterkenny that he was humbled to return to his home diocese.
The mass for the Episcopal Installation will take place in St Eunan's Cathedral at 3pm.
Principal celebrants will include the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin, Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Luis M Montemayor, Bishop of Down and Connor Alan McGuckian SJ and Bishop Emeritus of Raphoe Philip Boyce.
Other members of the Irish Bishops’ Conference, both serving and retired, and clergy from the Dioceses of Raphoe and Ossory will also be in attendance.
A choir comprising members drawn from the parishes of the diocese will perform the music throughout the liturgy under the direction of Father Michael Carney.
The Diocese of Raphoe includes the greater part of Co Donegal and it has a Catholic population of 83,050, consisting of 33 parishes and 71 churches.
The Bishop of Raphoe is patron of 99 primary schools, and there are 20 voluntary secondary schools and State schools in the diocese.
Bishop Niall Coll was ordained a priest by Bishop Séamus Hegarty for the Diocese of Raphoe in 1988 after studying at the National Seminary at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth.
Following ordination, he studied in Rome and in Trinity College Dublin, before returning to Rome to complete a doctorate.
He was previously a Chaplin and a teacher at St Eunan's College in Letterkenny, Chaplain in Pobalscoil na Rossan and curate in the parish of An Clochán Liath.
He also lectured in St Patrick’s, Carlow College and in Saint Mary’s University College, a college of Queen’s University Belfast.
He returned to the Diocese of Raphoe in 2020, where he was appointed parish priest of Drumholm in south Donegal and he was subsequently appointed parish priest of Tawnawilly in Donegal Town in 2021. He served as Bishop of Ossory for the past three years.
