Tag Archives: church

A DEFINING part of many Clare people’s weekend is attendance at mass, but that will not be the case for the next three weekends at least, as the county and the country are again under tighter restrictions. As was the case earlier in the year the devout will be watching the ceremonies through electronic devices as part of the national effort to limit the spread of the virus. “On one hand while we’re not surprised, we are that it happened so quickly, being locked down at pretty short notice. We’re gone to phase 3, it is what it is, it’s the reality and maybe it’s a reminder to everyone to up their game a little bit and look out for everybody,” said Shannon parish priest Father Arnold Rosney on Tuesday. He said that people can still go to their local places of worship. “Public masses are on hold for the three weeks but the churches are still open for private …

WHILE the technology to do it fairly easily has been available for several years now, it is only since the onset of Covid-19 that broadcasting of masses online has become commonplace and the reaction from the Clare faithful has been quite positive. For many years now the numbers attending religious ceremonies has been falling, and the enthusiasm for watching them at home may give some encouragement to the Church. Shannon parish priest Father Arnold Rosney said that since the restrictions have been in place many people have viewed the masses he has put online. “We’re doing it every morning at 10am, using the facilities of the webcam, the parish radio and I put it on Facebook live as well, which is a huge attraction for a lot of people. We find that all three are getting big numbers, particularly on a Sunday morning. “To give you an example there were over 3,000 on Monday morning. The average could be 1,500 …

NEWLY appointed Killaloe Diocesan Administrator, Fr Des Hillery, has dismissed suggestions that he may have an interest in succeeding Bishop Kieran O’Reilly, who is now Archbishop of Cashel and Emly. A native of Miltown Malbay, Fr Hillery has been parish priest of Nenagh for two and a half years, prior to which he served as a Columban missionary in Lima, Peru for seven years. “We’re not going there. I’m coming back to Nenagh. We’re not going down that road,” Fr Hillery quipped when asked if he is interested in the vacancy. “My focus is certainly here in Nenagh. It’s a very fine parish; the people are extremely good to me. I certainly enjoy where I am and I intend staying here,” he added. The most controversial aspect of Bishop O’Reilly’s tenure was the issue over the proposed exclusion of women from the diaconate. Last September, following a number of public meetings, the then Bishop of Killaloe said he was delaying …

MEMORIES of cultural contests of years gone by will be rekindled at the West County on November 21. Settling Old Scórs is being organised by Kilkishen’s John Torpey. He said he wanted to revisit the heyday of Scór in Clare. “I’m organising a celebratory concert of Scór from the 1970s, ’80s, ’90s and the millennium. Scór was a huge thing, probably one of the greatest social items that the GAA ever came up with,” he said. In the early days of the competition, there was incredible interest in it, not least in his own part of the county. “Christy Curtin from Miltown Malbay came up with a notion that there should be a social aspect to the GAA. Coming out of that, all of the clubs in the county were contacted, including myself and Robert Frost in O’Callaghan’s Mills. A few of us met in Kilkishen on a Saturday night and we said ‘you sing a song, you do this, …

RTÉ Radio mass will be broadcast from Cloughleigh Church, Ennis on Sunday. The mass will feature music and singing from the Scoil Chríost Rí, Cloughleigh School Band. You can listen to the mass on Longwave 252 or the RTÉ Radion Extra App.