Dignan was a native of Ballygar, County Galway and educated locally at Esker, near Athenry, later attending St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, where he was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Clonfert on 6 September 1903.
His first appointment was to the staff of St. Joseph's College at Ballinasloe, where he served for twelve years, ten of them as President.
After his Episcopal ordination in June 1924 he gave an interview in which he declared himself a 'Republican' and that he hoped to see a 'reversion to the pre-Treaty days of Ireland'.
[6] Dignan was appointed chair of the Committee of Management of the National Health Insurance Society in 1936 by Seán T. O'Kelly to examine social welfare provision in Ireland and would feature prominently in the development of government policy in this area for much of the next decade.
[7] It has been suggested that he "campaigned relentlessly" for the introduction of state medical benefits including in personal meetings with Éamon de Valera and finally saw this being legislated for in 1942.