Former Bluebird is ordained as priest
FORMER Cardiff City and Manchester United player Philip Mulryne has been ordained a Roman Catholic priest in the Dominican Order.
Mulryne was a product of the Red Devils’ youth academy and made five appearances for Sir Alex Ferguson’s side before joining Norwich City for £500,000 in 1999.
He made more than 150 appearances for the Canaries before joining the Bluebirds in 2005, going on to play for Leyton Orient before retiring after a brief stint with King’s Lynn.
During his international career with Northern Ireland, Mulryne scored three goals, but was reprimanded by boss Lawrie Sanchez in 2005 for breaking a team curfew along side another ex-Bluebird, Jeff Whitley.
After turning his back on his luxury lifestyle in favour of a more humble existence, Mulryne, 39, who once earned £600,000 a year, was declared insolvent at Belfast High Court in 2016.
He officially retired from football in 2009 and then entered the Diocesan Seminary of Saint Malachy’s Belfast to begin his journey to ordination.
Mulryne studied philosophy at Queens University in Belfast for two years and then at the Maryvale Institute.
He then went to the Pontifical Irish College in Rome to study theology for a year at the Gregorian University.
In 2012, he entered the Dominican Novitiate House in Cork.
The 27-cap international was ordained as a deacon by the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin in October last year and has now been ordained a priest by Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia, who travelled from Rome especially for the ceremony.