Renata Steffens
The very unique church dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary and the Guardian Angels, in the Sallins Parish celebrated 100 years with Mass led by Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin Denis Nulty on September 29.
In his homily during the Mass celebration, Bishop Nulty said “similar churches would be found in mission stations, frontier towns, mining camps and military outposts.”
Known as the Tin Church, the building arrived in something similar to an ‘Ikea’ flat-pack that took a few months to assemble. The parts were corrugated metal for the exterior and wood planks for the interior, all parts manufactured by Harrison & Co. in London. Harrison’s employees joined local men to assemble the building.
The bishop continued: “Our celebration this morning is a commendation of those along with Fr Norris [the priest who said the first Mass at the Tin Church] who had the foresight and vision of honouring the people of Sallins with a Church to call their own.
“Of course, worship of a faith community in Sallins goes much further back than the 1920s – while there was no chapel of ease or parish church here, there were people of deep faith here who travelled to attend Mass in Naas in the worst of weather conditions.”
Apart from the altar moving place in 1972, when Sallins became a parish and floor refurbishment in 1990, the church remains unchanged.