Fr. Tommy Mannion is a native of Abbeyknockmoy, near Tuam, Co. Galway. A keen hurler and footballer, he has all-Ireland medals in both games himself and is an uncle of Tommy Mannion, a key Galway senior footballer on the 2001 all-Ireland team.

Fr. Mannion came to Louisburgh from the Aran Islands, and before that he spent many years serving in various parishes all over the Tuam Diocese and in St. Jarlath's College.