Greg Daly
Dublin city centre parishes have vowed that Easter Sunday Masses will go ahead after severe security measures in place for the 1916 centenary parade forced their Protestant counterparts to take the unprecedented step of cancelling Easter services.
A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Dublin told The Irish Catholic that “Mass will be celebrated in the Pro-cathedral on Easter, although there will be traffic restrictions in the area”.
Worship
The Church of Ireland announced this week that services in the city centre are to be cancelled, with clergy and congregations joining suburban parishes for worship.
Their decision followed a Garda request that the front gates of Christ Church Cathedral be locked for Easter Sunday and a Government directive that traffic should be barred from the city centre that day, in recognition of how “the majority of people who worship in the city centre churches do not today live within the traditional parish boundaries”.
Canon Damian O’Reilly, administrator of St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, said although due to the traffic restrictions, “Easter Sunday will be a challenge” since people come to the pro-cathedral from all across the archdiocese, he maintained that it would “rise to the challenge”.
Some slight adjustments in Mass times might be necessary, he said, maintaining that “as it stands the schedule is going ahead as planned”.
Fr Eddie Conway OP of St Saviour’s Church on Dominick Street said he doubted that many city centre Catholic churches would be severely affected by the traffic restrictions. Commenting “on these big occasions, people park on the edge of town and walk in,” he said “a lot of our congregation are on the northside anyway – a lot will walk here anyway”.
Havoc
Fr John Gilligan of St Andrew’s Church on Westland Row, however, while “planning to press ahead as usual”, said Easter Sunday is “a big event for us, and it would cause huge havoc if they start closing the streets”.
While the Jesuits of St Francis Xavier’s Church on Gardiner Street have been told nothing of any planned restrictions, Fr Christopher Clarke SJ said he suspected restrictions “will affect people crossing the city, a bit like St Patrick’s Day, when our attendance is halved at least”.
The fact that a 1916 commemoration might block people from worshipping in the pro-cathedral struck him as “very unusual”, displaying “disregard” for the role of pro-cathedral clergy in ministering to the rebels and ordinary people during the Rising, he said.
Fr Bryan Shortall OFM Cap of St Mary of the Angels’ Church on Church Street agreed, saying it would be “a real pity if on Easter Sunday, the most important religious day of the liturgical year, that people would be barred from going to Mass or their services”.