Chai Brady
A Dublin pub has been helping parents come together to celebrate their child’s Confirmation this week by opening early and livestreaming the event.
Due to the coronavirus some parents haven’t been able to attend Confirmation ceremonies, with only the sponsor being allowed in some churches. After being asked by the parents of children receiving Confirmation this week in St Kilian’s Church in Kingswood, The Kingswood Lodge answered the call and set out to accommodate about 40-50 people on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Pius O’Connell of The Kingswood Lodge said the event would be “socially distant totally, we have to stick to the rules”.
“This is very much a local pub, we’re in the middle of a housing estate here in Kingswood and any way that we can support the local community is great from our point of view. It’ll be teas, coffees, scones, sandwiches, that’s it, I think the Confirmations go on from 11am until 1pm, so it’ll only be people that are associated, or have an interest in the Confirmations across the road that will come across.”
With the pub being very close to the church, Mr O’Connell said: “The way I would see it is that some of the parents will drop their kids off, get their photos taken outside the church, unfortunately they won’t be able to go in, at least they have somewhere to come for the hour – across to us and hopefully they can watch their little John or Mary getting their Confirmation.”
Mr O’Connell explained that even with social distancing the pub’s lounge “can hold a decent crowd” and there would be no problem accommodating 40-50 people.
Due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic the pub has restricted its opening hours – it now only opens at 2pm midweek but an exception was made after a request by parishioners.