175 Years Ago: Dedication of St Mary's, Saggart, Sunday 19 August 1849

This year marks the 175th anniversary of the (re)building of Saggart Church. It was blessed and dedicated by the Archbishop of Dublin, Daniel Murray, on Sunday, 19th August 1849, an event reported next day in The Freeman's Journal under the headline, THE SOLEMN DEDICATION OF THE NEW CATHOLIC CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY OF THE B.V. MARY AT SAGGARD. 

There was a church on the site before.  Samuel Lewis in his Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837)(a wonderful resource that can now be downloaded) gives a description of Saggard (written thus in Lewis and the Freeman's Journal) which highlights what is still one of the most unique features of our church, "a monument of marble to the Rev. A. Hart, P.P. and dean of Maynooth, with his effigy in bass relief ". 

Below are (1) the entry in Lewis, and (2) the opening section of the report in The Freeman's Journal (issue of Monday 20th).  For the entire report, see here (courtesy of Gale Publications).

At 9 am Mass in Saggart on Sunday 20th, we will remember with gratitude the "unwearied exertions" of priest and people in working together to erect "this really handsome church" of ours in 1849. (See the notice on the main website here.)

And we take it from there 25 years later.

Back to School for a Cuppa

From the Centre's Facebook page

What a fine job it is, the transformation of the former St Mary's National School into a Community Centre!  The modern school, as we know, is to be found beside the church (see it here), while we can see what it was like in former times here.  

Farewell, Fr John Gilligan and Welcome, Fr Joseph Ryan

                                                                                                                     Photo: Ronan McDermott

After serving for eight years in our pastoral area, Fr John will be moving to another pastoral area in Dublin at the end of June. To show our appreciation, a farewell gathering is being planned for the evening of Saturday 29 June in Rathcoole Community Centre at 7PM. Fr John will celebrate the vigil Mass beforehand at 6PM.  All parishioners and friends of Fr John are warmly invited, and if you can bring or bake some finger food for the event it will be very much appreciated!

The above announcement was published by our Parish Pastoral Council and Finance Committee on the main parish website. The newsletter for St Brigid's, Blanchardstown of 19th May (here), shows parishioners there "looking forward to welcoming [their] new Parish Priest", our Fr John. On the other hand, parishioners in St Columba's, Iona Road, are getting ready to "say thank you and goodbye to Fr Joe" (newsletter of 26th May, here), as we are now to Fr John.

A time, then, for fond farewells and hearty welcomes as priests prepare for what must be a difficult task -- moving on and settling in again, very often in their mature years. We welcomed Fr John on 26 October 2016 (see our report here). Now we say a big Thank You to him as he departs, and wish him many happy and fulfilling years in Blanchardstown parish. 

At a token of our appreciation, there will be collections after Mass in  Rathcoole (6 pm, Sat. 22nd,  and 12 pm, Sun. 23rd) and Saggart (9 am, Sun. 23rd). 

Saturday, 29th June, Rathcoole Community Centre

Fr Joseph leaving Iona Road Parish