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