Parish grapples with problem of old church buildings

March 11th, 5:07pm March 11th, 5:10pm

Mairtin O'Cathain

Connacht Tribune

Geographically it is reputed to be the largest parish in the country – but Roundstone is facing a crisis over what to do with church buildings that it can no longer sustain.

The parish now has a single priest – Polish-born PP Fr Kyzysztof Sikoura – and the reduced circumstances have resulted in question marks on the future of the old school in Doire Bhó Riada in Bun na gCnoc in Recess and the priest’s house in Cashel – both half parishes of Roundstone.

The parish itself, which stretches from the far side of Gurteen beaches in Roundstone as far as the Twelve Bens and Mám Tuirc mountains had three priests up until the nineties but is now down to just a PP.

The area’s population has also gone into serious decline with a preponderance of people in the older age groups.

The old Doire Bhó Riada school was both a functioning school and a Mass centre in past years; it was also a focal point of some of the controversy concerning the use of the Irish language in the primary school and in the Mass in the Recess area in the 1980s and 1990s.

National school education was ended in the Doire Bhó Riada school in Bun na gCnoc – in the foothills north of Recess – in the late seventies.

The school was replaced by a new building beside the main road in Recess.  However, Mass continued to be celebrated in Doire Bhó Riada school afterwards.

A prolonged dispute followed in the new school when the Irish language was instituted as the primary teaching language.

Most parents kept their children out of the school; they did, however, says that they had a number of issues.

A dispute also erupted about the place of the Irish language in the Mass in Doire Bho Riada.

Local teacher at the time, Bríd Ní Dhomhnaill, campaigned for an Irish language Mass leading to confrontation with the then Archbishop Cunnane of Tuam.

The new Recess school was eventually closed in the early 1990s as a resolution to the dispute could not be found.

However, the Archdiocese of Tuam made arrangements to have a Mass in Irish said in the old Doire Bhó Riada school in Bun na gCnoc every weekend.

The arrangement continued over the years but very few people were attending the Mass in Bun na gCnoc in later times and it was discontinued as the pressure of work mounted on the one priest in the parish.

Cashel lost its curate in 1993 and the priest’s house beside the Church has not been used since. It is now in a poor state of repair.

Roundstone PP Fr Sikoura, who has been appointed to the parish in the past year, says that the cost of maintaining buildings – there are five churches in the parish – is becoming too much of a burden. Insurance alone costs up to €10,000 per year.

Fr Sikoura said the social and population realities have to be faced up to and that he will be discussing the future of buildings such as the Doire Bhó Riada School and the priest’s house in Cashel with the community at upcoming meetings.

His preference is that the buildings could be improved and restored and put to some beneficial purpose.

Dwellings or holiday homes are among the suggestions but that could involve significant initial costs.