DUBLIN, Ireland - Leaders of Ireland's major Protestant denomination, the Church of Ireland, elected a new Dublin archbishop Thursday from the church's liberal wing.
Archbishop John Neill, 56, is best known for leading the successful push in the early 1990s for women to be admitted as priests in the Anglican-affiliated church. He also supports building ecumenical links with the dominant Roman Catholic Church in Ireland.
The Church of Ireland has an estimated 185,000 members in the Republic of Ireland. Its senior figure, Archbishop Robin Eames, oversees the church both in the republic and the neighboring British territory of Northern Ireland.
Neill, who succeeded the retiring Archbishop Walton Empey, had served as bishop of the rural Cashel and Ossory diocese since 1997.
Neill holds a bachelor's degree from Trinity College Dublin in Hebrew and Oriental languages, and a master's from Jesus College at Cambridge University in England.
He is married with three sons, one of whom is also a Church of Ireland minister.