Feast day of St Senan marked in West Clare

THIS Thursday is the feast of St Senan and the day will be celebrated across West Clare, particularly in the Inis Cathaigh cluster of parishes.

The day has traditionally been celebrated in West Clare but for the past few years, the parishes of the Inis Cathaigh Cluster have kept memory of Senan of Scattery, who sowed the seeds of the Gospel in West Clare and went out from there to places across the then known world as far away as Rome.
For the people of West Clare, Senan is a hugely significant figure, with people, places, churches, schools, wells all bearing his name. During the coming weeks of Lent, West Clare parishes will link up for a series of pilgrim walks connecting places in the West Clare landscape associated with Senan.
The first of these pilgrim walks will take place on Sunday when the people from the parishes of Kilrush, Kilmurry McMahon and Knockerra will walk from local holy wells and from Molougha, Senan’s birthplace, coming together at Knockerra Church at 5pm. Other walks will take place on Sundays thereafter.
It is widely believed Senan offered the light of hope to the people of West Clare. To help rekindle hope in our time, each family in West Clare is invited to light a candle of hope and place it in the window at 7pm on Thursday night, the feast of Senan. Those from West Clare, who live in other parts of Ireland or abroad are invited to light their candle too.
The lighting of the candle in houses across the West Clare parishes is an expression of a desire to work together as parish communities to keep hope alive in difficult times and to keep a sense of community alive in West Clare.