John enjoying new role at Knock Shrine
JOHN Conroy is the new manager of Knock Shrine. He took up his appointment in October, writes Mike Byrne.
Aged 59, John has lived in Breaffy, Castlebar, for the past 20 years. A native of Ballyfin in Co. Laois, he is married to Dolores since 1983, who hails from Mervue, Galway. The couple have two daughters - Laura (London) and Aoife who lives in Dublin.
This year marks a special milestone in the lives of the Conroy family as last April, John and Dolores welcomed their first grandchild, Olivia, into the family.
John is a senior business executive with over 35 years of broad business experience across large multinational organisations.
Prior to taking up his new role at Knock, he worked with Volex PLC for 18 years, a UK company that provides complex cabling solutions to a variety of markets, including medical, telecommunications, industrial and consumer. There he held key management positions with responsibility for the long term development and management of major global customers and markets.
Prior to joining Volex in 1998, John spent 17 years working for Ericsson, the Swedish multinational provider of communications technology, in a variety of supply chain management roles. During this period with Ericsson, he spent five years in Ireland (Dublin and Athlone), followed by 12 years working internationally in the UK (seven years) and in Malaysia for five years where he established and managed Ericsson's new supply and distribution division from 1993, until returning to Ireland in 1998.
When I caught up with John at Knock last week, he told me how he was really relishing the prospect of becoming part of the shrine team.
The Marian Shrine has always been close to his heart, and not without good reason, as he explained:"My father and mother actually met on a trip from Ballyfin parish to Knock Shrine back in 1952. They were regular visitors to Knock since then and any time they came to visit us at Breaffy they had to spend at least one day at the shrine.
"My father has always been a role model for me and he was actively involved in the church, being sacristan in his local parish for 30 years, right up until he passed away last year at the wonderful age of 94. His proudest moment was when he was awarded the Benemerenti Medal in 2005 for his long and exceptional service to the Catholic Church."
He continued: "I'm already enjoying my new role here at Knock and it is great privilege to get the opportunity to work with shrine rector Fr. Richard Gibbons and his very experienced team. I admire his vision and dynamic leadership and look forward to supporting him and the team to continue the very impressive development work that has been ongoing at the shrine for a number of years now.
"I would plan to use my global business experience to drive the development of an international ethos for the shrine.
"Pilgrims come from all parts of Ireland every year on organised pilgrimages, tours or personal visits. In collaboration with Ireland West Airport, and other local partners, we would envisage bringing more international pilgrims to visit the shrine in the future. At the same time we will be very focused on continuing to develop programmes aimed at bringing young people to Knock and to give them a really positive experience of their visit here.
"Fr. Richard has spearheaded some wonderful infrastructure improvements at the shrine during the past four years and these are plain to see today. I'm looking forward to supporting the next phase of improvements at the shrine in the years ahead."