At 30, David is the youngest priest in Ireland.
This weekend’s edition of The Tommy Tiernan Show saw the comedian have a chat with Fr David Vard.
At 30, Fr Vard is Ireland’s youngest Catholic priest.
While on the show, Fr Vard told Tommy about why he chose his career path.
He said: “I often describe it to people as falling in love. So I had that period at 16 or 17 of falling in love with God and the church.
“And then entering at 18 and continuing that in a deeper way. And realising that this God is good and this God loves me. And this God wants me to be a solider in this world for him.
“And falling in love with that idea, and taking that idea and owning it in my way. He’s calling me David Vard and what does that mean? For me? And how can I be me as a priest in this world?”
Thank you everyone for your nice comments! Glad it’s over but happy it has aired. Cheers @Tommedian and every who worked on the show that night @rte #TommyTiernanShow pic.twitter.com/oqE9BA5kwg
— Fr. David Vard (@DavidVard) March 20, 2022
Fr Vard also addressed the many scandals that the Catholic Church have been complicit in over the past few decades, including the Mother and Baby Homes and Tuam.
Addressing these, the priest said: “There is a dark cloud in Ireland over the church because we have a history. And that dark cloud has covered everything – anything that was ever good done by good people who never did anything wrong beyond the normal.
“The sins of a few have darkened the goodness of a lot.
“That is unfortunate and that is what we need to work against. We need to say we are good, we do love you and we do want to help you and that is what I hope I stand for.”
Fr Vard has since took to Twitter to thank viewers for their kind comments after his appearance on the talk show.
He wrote: “Thank you everyone for your nice comments! Glad it’s over but happy it has aired.”
He then tagged Tommy Tiernan to thank him, as well as the crew who worked on the show.
