Mags Gargan
This year marks the centenary of perhaps one of the best known churches in the Diocese of Down and Connor – St Mary’s Star of the Sea, Portstewart, Co. Derry.
Celebrations to mark this piece of parish history got under way with the launch of a book setting out the story of the seaside church with stunning views across the bay to the sweeping headland of Innishowen.
The book was launched by one of the members of The Priests, Fr Martin O’Hagan, who revealed that his father and mother had been married in Star of the Sea.
Parish priest Fr Austin McGirr said there was much joy in the parish as they prepared to celebrate the consecration of their beautiful church one hundred years ago.
In 1916 it replaced a much more modest building at Heathmount which had been built in 1895, the first Catholic church in Portstewart. Because of its construction – wood and corrugated iron – it became known as the ‘Tin Chapel’.
The book is on sale in the parish repository and in a number of outlets in Portstewart (price £5).