Patrick MacAlister
Patrick McAlister (1826–1895) was an Irish Roman Catholic Prelate and 24th Lord Bishop of Down and Connor. Education and Priestly Ministry McAlister was born in Bonecastle, parish of Down, and was baptised by Fr Cornelius Denvir (afterwards Bishop of Down and Connor) on 12 April 1826. He studied in St. Malachy's College and then entered the Logic Class in St Patrick's College, Maynooth on 27 August 1848. He was ordained in Clarendon Street Chapel, Dublin, by Bishop John Francis Willian Whelan OCD Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bombay on 18 September 1852 and was given his first appointment as Curate of Ballymena on 18 November 1852. He was sent on a temporary mission, as locum tenens to Glenravel, while the priest there was engaged in building St Patrick's Church in the Braid, where he officiated from December 1853 until March 1854. He returned to Ballymena and, after a few months, was appointed Curate of the Lower Ards, April 1854. He was appointed Curate of Ahoghill in October 1856, but sent to take charge of Ballymoney parish until Father McErlain, the recently appointed parish priest could arrive, which did not occur until 10 March 1857. He was then curate of Ahoghill until