‘Great excitement’ as Fermanagh children receive Confirmation

There was “great excitement” among families as 68 schoolchildren received the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Diocese of Clogher over the weekend.

The children of Aghalurcher parish in Lisnaskea/Maguiresbridge, Co. Fermanagh, were some of the first to receive the Sacrament in the diocese this year.

Fr Jimmy McPhillips PP told The Irish Catholic: “We are blessed in the North that we’re able to have our people back in church.

“We have a very, very active parish Covid committee, with the local GP as our chair, so we are following the law very strictly and we’re doing it very safely so we could go ahead with our sacraments.”

With First Communions coming up in a few weeks and three primary schools in the parish, Fr McPhillips says “there’s a lot of kids to go through the sacraments”.

“We’re happily doing it and we have everything in place, so we see the church as the safest place you can be.”

Regarding the feeling among parishioners, Fr McPhillips said: “They were hopeful, it was an obvious green shoot for a lot of people. There was definitely great excitement among the families. Again, it was restricted, it was only the sponsor and the siblings, none of the parents were allowed into the church and each family had a seat allocated to them.”

He added: “It’s great to see the happiness in the kids’ faces too. They’re just back in school now about three weeks here. It’s been a very difficult four months for the kids, so to give them a wee bit of hope too was so important. You just have to get on with it, we just have to live with this.”