Adeste Fideles! Sunday 14th, 7.30pm

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Two Headline News Stories

The above two photos are taken from this week's Irish Catholic newspaper published last Thursday 20th. The events they illustrate are certainly worth recording here. The top photo shows Fr Michael Shortall (left) presiding for the first time as President of Maynooth College at the annual conferring ceremony. On the right is Archbishop Eamon Martin who, as Chancellor of the University whose degress were being awarded (i.e. SPPU, St Patrick's Pontifical University), presented these to the happy students one by one. (The caption, I'm afraid, gets the roles mixed up -- it is Archbishop Eamon who is Chancellor, not Rev. Dr Michael.)

The other photo shows Archbishop Dermot Farrell announcing a truly historic event, i.e. the recognition by Rome of Dublin's Pro-Cathedral as a cathedral in the full sense of the word, no longer hyphenated somewhat awkwardly and puzzlingly as before but a cathedral now with all the high status that comes with that title. 

And so we have the students in SPPU overjoyed on receiving their award from Rome in the form of a degree and Archbishop Dermot (former President of Maynooth) jubilantly sharing another document from Rome granting the Archdiocese of Dublin a cathedral at last. Everyone happy -- a degree for the students and a papal decree for the Catholic faithful of Dublin!

Fr Andrew Hart's 210th Anniversary, died 20.11.1815

Ten years ago we celebrated the bicentenary of the death of Fr Andrew Hart, P.P. of the United Parishes of Saggart, Rathcoole and Newcastle. He died at the age of 30 after only three years in office. His striking and life-like effigy is to be seen in St Mary's on the right-hand side of the nave, head turned towards the altar. The pull-up nearby (designed by the writer) gives us a summary of his short but fruitful life. (For more reading, about Andrew Hart's bicentenary as well as about the bicentenary two years earlier of the church which he erected, i.e. St Finian's, Newcastle, use the Search box on this page.)

Now we have something small but very original to mark this 210th. It is the brief but eloquent announcement of his death in Saunders's News Letter, Tuesday, 21st November 1815, here being re-read in the original (now digitized) for the first time since its publication. The holdings for this paper in our National Library are from 1828 (see here), whereas the British Library ones are complete.

From www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

As well, then, as our parishioners being remembered this month at special Masses (tomorrow in Rathcoole, near 'Greenoak' (i.e. Greenogue)), we can spare a thought and prayer for the deceased of times gone by, even very long gone by, as is the case with Andrew Hart. 

Feast of All Souls, Sunday 2nd November

We remember at this time of year our loved ones who have left us. They lived out their vocation as best they could and, in doing so, contributed a small but inestimably valuable part to mankind's onward progress -- in Christian terms, the building up of the mystical body of Christ. We will remember them on Sunday, the Feast of All Souls, and throughout the month, in particular at the annual Masses for the Dead taking place in Newcastle (Friday 14th., 7.30 p.m.) and Rathcoole (Friday 21st, 7.30 p.m.). 

Each person, lay or clerical, has an unfathomably rich and mysterious life-story or vocaton. We focused in our last post on vocations to the diocesan priesthood yesterday and today. The photo of the Clonliffe students in 1960 showed our own John Jacob (died 8th March this year). Martin Tierney was ordained in the same year as Fr John (1964). From Clare, he served in the diocese of Dublin. He can be seen on the very right, fourth row from the front (with glasses). He wrote several books, two of them in his final years (click on photos below to enlarge): No Second Chance: Reflections of a Dublin Priest (Columba Press, 2010) and Battling the Storm: A Cancer Patient's Diary (written as a series for the Irish Catholic newspaper in 2009, published in 2010 by Veritas after his death that year in May, aged 71 -- click on the Read More bar below for final two pages, 102-03).

Each one of us sees (or 'discerns') a chance or opportunity (offered by Providence, as faith says and hope clings to) and goes on to live out their life in service to others as best they can, finding fulfilment in what comes but also, at times, no doubt, like Fr Martin here, 'battling storms'. 'I am left trying to answer the deeper questions like, what is God's plan for my life? I must believe that, somehow, God is directing what is happening at the moment.'  Over the coming weeks we will remember in our thoughts and prayers all those in our parish cemeteries and beyond who followed their call (all the time trying to make it out more clearly) and gave it their all.

News about Maynooth

Dunboyne House, Maynooth College

Students are starting their studies in colleges all over Ireland right now, many in Maynooth University, others in Maynooth's Pontifical University, others still (very few) in the National Seminary of Maynooth. Yes, the College is unique in having these three constituent parts, i.e. secular university, pontifical university (i.e. offering courses approved by Rome) and seminary for the training of priests for all the Irish dioceses (and some foreign ones too). Now up to the year 2000, Dublin diocese had its own seminary, a fine account of which was published in 1962 all about the centenary celebrations in 1959. It contains a photo taken in 1960 of the college's 109 clerical students (pick out our own John Jacob (second row from front, fourth in from the right) who died on 8th March this year and is buried in Saggart graveyard): 

Fr Richard Sherry, Holy Cross College Clonliffe, 
Dublin: Irish Printers Ltd, 1962, p.188

  

Now for the news about Maynooth. There are 2 students for the Dublin diocese in Maynooth this coming academic year, compared to over 100 in Clonliffe in 1960. That fact must make us all think about and try to understand the great changes that have taken place since those flourishing times for priestly vocations sixty years ago. 

Congratulations to Fr Liam Belton on his Golden Jubilee

Ballinteer and Meadowbrook Parish Newsletter, Sun. 25 May 2025

Fr Liam Belton served in our parish from 1998 to 2004. After eleven years in Greystones, in 2015 he was appointed Parish Priest and Moderator of the Pastoral area of Dundrum, Ballinteer and Meadowbrook.  The photo below was taken at the Jubilee Mass in Ballinteer on the 14th June.

The Irish Catholic, 26 June 2025, p.15

On Sunday 28th June, Fr / Canon Liam celebrated another Mass, this time in St Mary's, Barndarrig, Co. Wicklow, in the parish where he grew up. 

Photo from Facebook page for St Mary's, Barndarrig

Here too, then, let us offer Fr Liam  our thanks and congratulations for all he did among us and among so many before and after us during his fifty years as a priest.

Butterflies on mid-summer's eve

 

Driving through Newcastle yesterday, at the lights after the petrol station I saw someone painting on what I now know as a 'junction box' (for more on this, see here, for such 'street art' in our South Dublin Council area, see here, and you might also like to visit the Irish Butterfly Website here ). As we all have noticed over the past number of years, these boxes as well as electrical ones display some very eye-catching scenes. Isn't it lovely to see colour used creatively at the heart of ordinary life, as we walk or drive hurriedly by, our mind focused on the task in hand?  I parked my car further up and came back to have a word with the artist.  Young Tamara has been living in Newcastle now for four years with her family and is doing the art work she loves for Newcastle Tidy Towns. I took the first photo while she worked, and the second when, returning to Saggart in the evening, I saw the finished product. The butterfly looks like it's taking flight for the lovely flowers in the wildlife garden behind!

It's a red admiral and, coincidence, another has alighted on the front page of the current issue of the Far East, the magazine brought out by the Columban Missionaries we all used read long ago in the 50s / 60s!  

Ave atque (heu!) vale, Veritas. Hello and (alas!) Goodbye, Veritas

A reflection on how seldom I go to town now obviously, but I was taken completely aback when, getting off the Luas from Saggart recently in Lower Abbey Street, I saw no familiar Veritas sign winking at me, as it were, on my arrival in the city. Yes, I knew about the closure of their branch in Tallaght Square Shopping Centre on the 17th May last year (see here) and now here I was seeing (and believing as best I could) their HQ in Dublin gone for ever. In fact, it has been closed a good while, since Friday, 10th January. It opened in 1928 (read its history here). How many times over how many years was I inside, browsing away and buying too, of course! A lectionary was my last big purchase (for a certain church). So what a shock!  

Round the corner, as you know, brings you up Marlborough Street to the Pro-Cathedral. Dublin's seminary, Clonliffe College, closed in 1999.  Last Sunday a 'Lay Ministry Appeal' was publicized by the diocese. Signs of the times -- times changing so fast.  But, in this Jubilee Year of Hope, we try to remain hopeful that change, finally, is for the better.  After all, "To live is to change," said St John Henry Newman -- who knew Dublin well from living here in the 1850s. 

Habemus Papam Pope Leo XIV

For more photos, see here, while here we can follow his address given from the balcony above. Today, with a congregation made up of the cardinals who elected him yesterday, he said his first Mass as Pope in the Sistine Chapel.  The Mass was said in Latin and Italian, but the first reading, we note in the Mass booklet, was in English, while the second was in Spanish. A truly memorable moment was when the Pope, the first Pope to be a native speaker of English, opened his sermon with the words: "I begin with a word in English, the rest is in Italian," (37  minutes into the Mass). That was surely a truly historic moment, leaving us with a wonderful world-wide sampling of languages ‒ linguistic unity-in-diversity.  To which, let us now add our own: "Go mbeannaí Dia é mar Phápa agus sinn go léir leis".

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Electing a New Pope

                          Eligo in summum pontificem        (Washington Post)

Morning Mass in St Peter's, Wed. 7th May, Election Day

Listening to the sermon, weighing things up

Requiescat in pace, Papa Franciscus (1936-2025)

Final procession up the nave of St Peter's after the funeral Mass

Imperial Rome, Pontifical Rome

Towards the final resting place in Santa Maria Maggiore

For his life, see here. For photos of his visit to Ireland in August 2018 for the World Meeting of Families, see here (i.e. this parish site). In this last, note the photo of Cardinal Kevin Farrell alongside Archbishop Diarmuid Martin at the Mass for the Pastoral Congress in the RDS (Wednesday 22nd). Now, seven years later, he is the "camerlengo" organising the conclave that will meet on Wednesday May 7th to elect a new Pope (more here). 

Easter Ceremonies 2025

Saggart
Good Friday 12pm Stations of the Cross. 3pm The Lord’s Passion and veneration of the cross. Holy Saturday 9pm Easter Vigil. Easter Sunday 9am Mass of the Resurrection.

Rathcoole
Holy Thursday 7pm Mass of the Lord's Supper. Good Friday 12pm Outdoor Stations. 3pm The Lord’s Passion and veneration of the cross. Holy Saturday 2pm Swieconka – Polish Blessing of the Baskets. 8pm Easter Vigil. Easter Sunday 12pm Mass of the Resurrection.

Newcastle
Holy Thursday 7pm Mass of the Lord’s Supper. Good Friday 12pm Outdoor Stations. 3pm The Lord’s Passion and veneration of the cross. Easter Sunday 10am Mass of the Resurrection.

Fr John Jacob, 1939-2025

Fr John Jacob must surely be accorded a special place in the history of our parish (click on photos to enlarge them and see here for his death notice). His association with us stretches over a whole lifetime, from his childhood in the family business on Main Street, Saggart, to his long years of service as a priest in the Dublin diocese. And now he has taken up final residence in the cemetery just a stone's throw down the road from his home. There, along with generations of local people, including some priests who served here in former days (the most recent being Fr Laurence O'Sullivan, P.P. 1984-2004, d.2007), he waits in spe resurrectionis (in hope of the Resurrection). 

Fr Michael McGowan 1929-2025

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Fr Michael died on Tuesday, 11th February, in Lisheen Nursing Home, Rathcoole, in his 96th year (see rip.ie).  His remains were received in the Church of the Holy Family at 6 p.m. on the 13th and the funeral Mass was held on Friday 14th at 12 p.m. He was then taken for burial in Mohill, Co. Leitrim, where he was from. (The removal may be viewed here and the funeral here.)  

Above is a photo of what was placed on or beside the memorial (or remembrance) table. On it are a liturgical vestment, prayer book and the Missal. Beside it we see two 'class pieces', the 1953-'54 group photo of the Third Divinity Class in St Patrick's College, Maynooth (left), and the 1955 photo of the ordination class of Holy Cross College, Clonliffe. Michael is first left, second row from the bottom, in the Maynooth piece, and third left, top row, in the Clonliffe one. As do wedding photos, these photos illustrate a turning point in a life. As can be seen, the priestly life was a very real option in the Ireland of the 40s, to such an extent, indeed, that there was no room for young Michael in his native diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois, obliging him to look further afield. Fr Michael then chose Dublin and lived out his vocation to the full for nearly seventy years, his final parish after Ballymore Eustace (1992-2004) being our own. (We reported on his 90th birthday in 2019 here.)

On this day 225 years ago: the story of Fr James Harold of Saggart

Mary McNally, South County Scrap Book

Mary McNally (buried in Saggart) lived in Rathcoole for many years, as did her people before her. Her South County Scrap Book (1999) covers a range of local history topics, including the story of Rathcoole House (see pp.92-96 of the digitized edition which can be downloaded here ). The photo shows the Penal Cross and chalice which were discovered there in 1933, belonging to Fr James Harold, PP of Saggart following the death in 1794 of Fr Simon Barlow (buried in Saggart). He found himself caught up in the 1798 Rebellion and was deported on a convict ship to Australia, arriving in Sydney's Botany Bay on 11 January 1800 -- 225 years ago today. He endured great hardship, especially when transferred to the notorious penal settlement of Norfolk Island (1800-07). In 1810 he was finally granted leave and, in March 1811, went to join his nephew William Vincent Harold O.P. in the cathedral parish of St Mary's in Philadelphia (see their parish newsletter for tomorrow here ). Unfortunately, things did not go very smoothly there for either of them for various reasons despite, no doubt, their best efforts (taking a heavy toll on the already sorely tried 67-year-old Fr James). In the end, in 1815, they both resigned and returned to Ireland. Having served in Kilcullen, Clontarf and Coolock, James resigned due to illness in 1819. He died in 1830 and is buried in Goldenbridge cemetery. (See the Dictionary of Irish Biography and parishioner Mervyn Ennis's article for an Irish-Australian magazine.)  

So, a plunge there into the murky waters of Irish history more than two centuries ago. Joyce's phrase, "the nightmare of history" (Ulysses, 1922), must come to mind as we read about people's lives. The American Catholic writer Flannery O'Connor's phrase, "the mystery of our position on earth" can be put into the balance too. The third phrase I'll throw in is that of the French theologian, Yves Congar (1904-1995): "God has a plan for the world. I'm convinced that our ways are guided" (Autumn Conversations, 1987). In the end, it all comes down (does it not?) to this: whether there really is a Divine Providence walking with humanity along the dark road of history towards the final dawning of an all-justifying, all-consoling truth.