THE spirit of the late Fr Michael McNamara, former parish priest of Doora-Barefield, continues to live on with the new chapel in Roslevan named in honour of the popular priest.
Moreover, it was announced this week that the Roslevan Pastoral Council have been shortlisted to represent Clare in the EBS Community Fund for the chance to win €10,000 and are urging members of the public to vote and show their support.
The newly developed chapel at Fahy Hall has been named the Church of Our Lady, with Fr Jerry Carey explaining, “This is really a tribute to Fr McNamara. He would have had a great affection for the Lourdes pilgrimage each year. Our Lady of Lourdes was someone very strong on his spiritual journey, so we felt a fitting tribute to him would have been to call it the Church of Our Lady. I think he would have been very proud with what has been done.”
The €550,000 redeveloped Fahy Hall, Roslevan Community Centre and the chapel have been open to the public since Christmas, six years after the idea was first envisaged for the growing Doora-Barefield parish.
“This new facility has been the net result of many years of painstaking planning on the part of local people on the pastoral council. The good will from the community has been just astounding by way of financial support for this project,” said Fr Carey.
The history of the project goes back to 2005 with the appointment of the late Fr McNamara as parish priest in Doora-Barefield leading to the establishment of pastoral councils in Doora, Barefield and Roslevan.
Roslevan pastoral council put the provision of community facilities as priority. The only community facility in Roslevan was Fahy Hall, built by Comhaltas in the ’70s and the growing population also necessitated the provision of facilities for mass. Fahy Hall has been used for the last number of years for Saturday evening mass and its redevelopment was seen as vital as the parish’s housing population increased.
Doora-Barefield is one of the largest rural parishes in the Diocese of Killaloe, stretching 16 miles from Barefield in the north to Doora in the south. Roslevan is situated in the centre of the parish, witnessing a major growth in housing and population in the past 15 years. House numbers have increased from 300 in the mid-’90s to over 1,500.
Six years after the idea was first put forward, in June of last year, work began on creating the new community centre and chapel by Galvin Construction from Barefield.
“Three men took on this project as a sub-committee of the pastoral council, Jackie Morris, Vincent Gardiner and Michael Williams. They saw it through its inception to its current stage of development. Now, we are looking forward to the future and how we can make this a centre that the whole community of Doora-Barefield can use and feel welcome in. As it was from them that the support came to built this in the first place,” said Fr Carey.
The new facility now includes a spacious hall, meeting room, kitchen and other services. The chapel holds 80 people and the adjoining hall can be accessed with sliding doors for larger ceremonies and events giving a total seating capacity of 230 people.
Already the centre is proving very popular, with growing numbers attending mass and a number of community groups using the hall.
“The numbers have doubled for mass, we have one weekend mass on Saturday evenings and mass daily at 9.30am. We’ve also had five christenings held here. Given the fact that we are in the Roslevan catchment area, there are an amount of young couples who have come to live in the area and they are growing into young families. A facility like this is ideal and the community hall is in use by many groups and it is open to further use as time goes forward,” said Fr Carey.
The hall is used for a variety of community groups including Comhaltas, Irish dance, martial arts and even triathlon training. There are also different prayer activities in the church including Taize.
“Working with the architect Dermot Merry, the idea behind this was that it would be a combined venture, a community building but also with facilities for a church. Primarily, the idea was that this building would have a community focus, that it would be bright, warm and welcoming. There has been a lot of support from the locality for this project, even the altar furnishings were crafted by parishioner Matt Fanning,” Fr Jerry explained.
“While mass was being said here before, what we now have in place is something that is more appropriate for this kind of celebration. In terms of community activities, we have lots going on here already and as more people become aware of what’s here, we expect that will grow. Everyone is bowled over by the end result and the workmanship of the builders is second to none. The amount of pride they have had in this has been obvious.”
This week the Roslevan Pastoral Council were awarded €500 by the EBS Community Fund and they are now in with a chance to win the overall prize of €10,000. The pastoral council was selected by its local EBS office to receive the funding and be shortlisted for the national prize.
The overall winner of the EBS Community Fund will be selected by the general public through an online vote at www.ebs.ie. Votes will be accepted up until March 5.