The 175th Celebration

After Mass on Sunday 20th, parishioners enjoyed a cuppa in the old parish national school, reopened in June of this year in its new guise as the Saggart Schoolhouse Community Centre. It was a memorable back-to-school experience for many of them.

(From left) Margaret Crone, Cáit Jacob, Mary McHugh,
Ann Byrne, Mary Lawless, Pauline Jacob

Fr Joseph Ryan

(From left) Mervyn Ennis, Brian Jacob, Liam Roche

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 (3 extracts) 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.