Canon Martin Forde

One of five brothers, he came from a farming family in Kilcornan near Clarenbridge in County Galway.

He studied for the priesthood at St Patrick’s College in Carlow and was ordained for the Leeds diocese at Carlow Cathedral in June 1968.

From 1968 until 1984, he was assistant priest at a number of parishes in the diocese – the Sacred Heart, Goldthorpe, St Theresa’s, Leeds and St Anne’s Cathedral in Leeds.

He later recalled that his arrival in South Yorkshire was something of a culture shock, coming as he did from the rural west of Ireland. But he found Goldthorpe people friendly and got to know a number of mining families who also had Irish roots. In later life, he contemplated retiring to Ireland eventually but he also felt that having lived in Yorkshire for so long he had become more attuned to the Church in this country than in present-day Ireland.

In 1984, he was appointed as parish priest of Holy Spirit, Stanningley and in 1986 he moved to St Patrick’s, Huddersfield, one of the biggest parishes in the diocese, founded in the 1830s.

For the next 14 years, Father Forde served the parish with great care, devotion and humility. He is still remembered there for his characteristically brief, yet thoughtful and powerful sermons. He returned to Leeds in 2000 as the parish priest of The Immaculate Heart at Moortown and then moved to Saints Peter and Paul, Yeadon nearly six years ago. In 2008, Arthur Roche – the Bishop of Leeds – appointed Father Forde to the Cathedral Chapter and he became a Canon.

Canon Forde will be mourned by his fellow priests and by his current and former parishioners.

He was a very reserved and unassuming man, but for all that he was also an extremely effective and successful pastor, able to draw on the knowledge and wisdom acquired from his many years of experience as a priest.

In all his parishes over that time he was held in great respect and affection.

His funeral will take place at Leeds Cathedral on Monday when Bishop Roche will celebrate the Requiem Mass, following which Canon Forde’s body will be taken to Ireland for burial in his home parish.