Renata Steffens
The parish of St Joseph, St Benildus and St Mary’s in Co. Waterford will celebrate the bicentenary of St Mary’s Church in Ballygunner with talks and events from March 26 to 30.
Fr Liam Power, PP told The Irish Catholic the church was built in 1825, just before the Catholic emancipation in 1829. Local historian, Joe Falvey, who is scheduled to give a talk on March 28 said the church was the focal point of the community for most of the past 200 years.
“It’s a huge parish; it’s over 70,000 in the parish. Not all church-going Catholics, but still is a huge population,” the priest said. For the whole parish it’s only “a priest and a half,” Fr Power said, just himself and a part-time priest. However, the 200 community volunteers help to keep the parish going.
Fr Power said he is “really excited” with the anniversary celebration. “It is generating a great sense of community involvement,” he said. The priest said the preparation for the bicentenary is creating a greater integration in the community and different groups are beginning to connect to each other.
The priest believes this is a chance for the community to “rediscover” the important role the church has played in the community for the past two hundred years. “I think connecting with that sense of community, will help people rediscover the faith dimension, how important it was for the people at that time. [They were] really, really poor … but the faith has kept them going and kept their hope alive.”
Fr Power hopes the celebration will generate an interest among the community, “retrieving the history. That people would be proud of it, and that it would be a renewal for us all. A renewal for the parish.”