James Moynagh

Bishop James Moynagh S.P.S., was an Irish-born Roman Catholic priest who served for the Saint Patrick’s Society for the Foreign Missions in Nigeria, and was ordained Bishop of Calabar.

Life

He was born on 25 April 1903 to Patrick Moynagh and Margaret Moynagh, of Legwee, Loughduff, Ballinagh, Mullahoran, County Cavan, and educated at St. Mel's College, Longford. He studied for the priesthood in Maynooth College, where he was ordained in 1930 for the Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, but volunteered to serve in Nigeria.
Moynagh was ordained a bishop in 1947, in Maynooth, and appointed Vicar Apostolic Calabar Nigeria, becoming the first resident Roman [Catholic Archdiocese of Calabar|Bishop of Calabar] in 1950.
Bishop Moynagh was instrumental in the foundation of the Medical Missionaries of Mary and that of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus.
Moynagh resigned as bishop in 1970 due to the civil war in Nigeria and following his return from there, he was appointed parish priest of Annaduff, County Leitrim.
He spent his final years at Kiltegan, with the St. Patrick's Missionary Society, and died on 11 June 1985.
The Bishop James Moynagh Pastoral Centre in the Roman [Catholic Diocese of Uyo] in Nigeria, is named in his honour.