Lisdoonvarna Kilshanny Doolin and Toovaraha Parish Pastoral Council Update

September 2023 to April 2024

Our Pastoral Council reconvened in September 2023 where we began putting

final touches to the Parish Mission which was held in November.

Each night of the mission was introduced by one of its members.

There were Pros and Cons to the mission some very much enjoyed it and took

something from each night where there were different speakers others felt

it was a little long winded.

As our four parish churches all required repairs and maintenance you will see a

breakdown of the works which has and currently been carried out on each of

them over the course of the past few months and thankfully all works are

progressing well.

·      Lisdoonvarna: The roof of the community room required extensive work

owing to a leak, this work was undertaken by Guerin and Considine Ltd

and cost in the region of €200k to complete (Final figures will issue in the

Financial report). The carpet also needed replacing in the community

room and parts of the wall in the main body of the church where there

was dampness had also to be repaired.This is currently drying out and

will be re-pained in due course. The funding for this came from grants

and the shortfall paid for from the parish funds.

·      Kilshanny: Plans were put in place to erect a toilet at the back of the

Church,quotes from three contractors were received SMD Construction

Ltd received the contract costing in the region of €33k funding came

from an anonymous donation of €9k and the finance committee have

applied for a Heritage Grant of €25K, work has now commenced on this

project.The wall in the car park has also been replaced, the surface will be

tarred and lined a request for more public lighting to be erected has been

submitted this project was funded by a discretionary allowance of €8500

which was given by Cllr. Shane Talty. Public Lighting in both the village

and outside the church outage has been reported since December 2023

and has been escalated twice since however we are still waiting for

both to be repaired.

·      Doolin: The boiler for the oil heating is very old this will need to be

checked to see if its economical we are currently awaiting a Firebird

(make of boiler)specialist to come out and check for same. Steps on altar

of Doolin church has been made safer by installing a brass strip. Fr. Robert

hopes to install new sensor light at the oil tank. The organ stopped working this

has now been taken to a workshop in Cork for repair. Public lighting outage

has been reported for Doolin church also.

·      Toovaraha: Planning Permission application was submitted to Clare Co

Co.for erection of car park and toilet facilities beside Toovaraha Church.

There were two stipulations one been an archaeological dig costing

€1500 and the other traffic survey costing €6500 both have now been

completed and are currently awaiting a decision on the application.

Other News:

Hopefully by now have heard the sweet voices of our

Children’s/Youth choir this has gone down a treat in all churches.

Signed Mass cards available in sacristy of each of the churches,

along with Jordan’s, O’Loughlin’s and Garrihy’s shops €5 for shared mass

and€10 for full mass, all proceeds go towards upkeep of our churches.

Last year we requested more volunteers for the churches if you feel you

can contribute any of your spare time, please let Fr. Robert McNamara or

one of the Parish Pastoral Council members know.

eg. Mass readings, Eucharistic ministers, basket collectors, church

cleaners,sacristans, flower arranging, maintenance.

Gutters have been cleaned in all four churches.

Parish Website now up and running (https://www.lisdoonvarnaparish.ie)

other social media sites such as Facebook is also operational.

Mary Reardon is now our parish Safeguarding Officer she now also

attends all the Parish Pastoral Council meetings.

A meeting was held recently by Bishop Michael Duignan with the Priests

of all the surrounding parishes on the “Restructuring and Renewals” of

our dioceses, along with a survey carried out at all masses in Oct 2023,

the statistics are eye watering we have six parishes and sixteen

churches within that group which are currently served by six priest the

projected numbers of Priest for the future are:

2024– 6 Priests

2026- 3 Priests

2032- 2 Priests

Bishop Duignan has stated there will parishes clusters coming, which

means the laity will have to become more involved in the churches if

they are to remain open.

The Parish Pastoral Council have now received a Blueprint document on

their Roles and Responsibilities training will commence in June for the same.

Regards

____________________________

Ann Thynne

Parish Pastoral Council Secretary

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