He was ordained to the priesthood on 4 February 1912[2] and upon his return to Ireland was appointed to the staff of St Eunan's College.

[6] Keen to develop religious life in his diocese, he invited the Capuchin Franciscans to the Creeslough area in 1930 to a site that would become known as Ards Priory.

[citation needed] In 2008, it was reported that MacNeely was one of the two Irish episcopal coordinators who worked alongside "an intelligence-gathering secret service" set up in 1948 to monitor any sign of a "Communist takeover" of Ireland.

[7] In 1953, he was a member of the inaugural Episcopal Commission for Emigrants reflecting the high levels of migration that afflicted his diocese and wider Donegal for much of the twentieth century.

[8] He served as Bishop for over forty years attending the early sessions of the Second Vatican Council, and died in December 1963.