He grew up in Duntocher and was educated at the junior seminary in Langbank and Blairs and then St Peter's College, Newlands. He read Modern History at Oxford and was ordained priest on 29 June, 1987. After ten years at St. Kessogs’s in Balloch, he volunteered as Parish Priest of Our Lady of Fatima, Dalmarnock. He was in Barlinnie for six years as a member of the chaplaincy team and after three years at Our Lady & St George’s, Penilee, went to St Peters, Partick. Completing a Master’s in Theology at the University of Glasgow, he became a member of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Team and lectured in the philosophy department of the seminary at Bearsden. Father Jim taught the History of Philosophy at Chesters, subsequently Scotus College, for ten years and was appointed Parish Priest of the Immaculate Conception in December 2011.