Born in County Mayo in the west of Ireland in 1964, Fr. Tim Mulroy grew up in a traditional Catholic family – with two brothers and five sisters – on a small farm. Daily involvement with life in the countryside as a child has given him a lifelong love for nature and the outdoor life.

As a teenager, mission stories in the Far East magazine inspired him to consider a life that would make the world a better place while satisfying his desire for adventure in faraway places. However, he was unsure if he wanted to engage in mission as a lay person or as a priest.

After a few years working as a primary school teacher, he decided to enter the Columban seminary and was ordained in 1995. Assigned to Japan, he spent seven years doing parish ministry. He also served as coordinator of Columban lay mission there.

Reassigned to the USA in 2002, he spent ten years as a mentor at the Columban international seminary in Chicago, and was then Director of Columban mission in the USA and Mexico for six years. The contrast between the two roles could not have been greater – on the one hand, fostering the dreams and missionary spirit of a young, multicultural generation of Columbans; and on the other hand, providing support and care to an older generation of US Columbans who were returning home after spending their active years in mission fields.

As the international leader of Columban missionaries from 2018 until 2024, Fr. Tim was based in Hong Kong. There, he had a close up view of major political events as they unfolded in that city, while at the same time felt forced to develop a virtual view of Columban mission in other parts of the world as a consequence of the severe travel restrictions which resulted from the covid pandemic.

Upon turning sixty in 2024, Fr. Tim requested that he be given a year to rest and to renew himself for the third stage of his life’s journey. While he had hoped to spend a large part of it in the Holy Land, that was not possible due to the turbulent political climate in the Middle East. Instead, he spent a few months as a hermit in the countryside in Ireland, a few months reconnecting with his family, and a few months assisting at a Columban project for disadvantaged children and teenagers in Lima, Peru.

Since joining the Columban community in Solihull in August 2025, Fr. Tim strives to support its various missionary endeavours while sharing his missionary experiences in other parts of the world with the church here in Britain.