The former garda who found a new role in Church of Ireland after retirement and divorce
Rev Mike Buchanan, a former Irish police officer, transitioned from the Catholic Church to the Church of Ireland priesthood. His journey was influenced by his dissatisfaction with the Catholic Church's treatment of women and his personal life experiences.
Why it matters
Highlights the intersection of personal identity, religious institutional reform, and the changing landscape of ministry in Ireland.
How women are treated in the Catholic Church drove Rev Mike Buchanan (58) from the tradition into which he was born to the Church of Ireland priesthood.
It cost him his marriage, but, unexpectedly, it has also brought him a fiancee.
There are interesting lives, and then there is Buchanan’s varied and most unusual preparation for Anglican ministry.
Next Tuesday, he will be installed as Rector of Tullow parish in south Co Dublin, which includes Carrickmines and Foxrock.
“I’ve been around the block a little,” he says.
Mike Buchanan grew up in Old Bawn, Tallaght, with a brother and sister.
His late father was a wages supervisor at Roadstone, formerly Clondalkin Concrete, while his mother, now in her 80s, remains Catholic, but also proud of him, her rector son.
He attended the Christian Brothers in Dolphin’s Barn, which he described as “a great education”.
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