News
Letter 2022
Rector Canon William Deverell
086 803 0239 or 462 1044, Auxillary Priest
Rev. Avril Bennett 628 23 53,
Parish Office Tues – Thurs (9.30am – 12.30pm) 462 6006, Parish email tallaghtparish@gmail.com
Last November 2021, following Covid, it was nice to be able to have a gathering
for the ‘Tree of Angels’ in the Churchyard again, in memory of lost
babies. Mellissa Luttrell originated the idea after her own sad neonatal loss.
It’s a way for those who have lost a child to remember.
We had our Christmas Services and the church, as usual, was
beautifully decorated by our very talented Flower Guild, they also did amazing
work for our Easter and more recently, Harvest Services. Since the pandemic we
have been having a ‘drop off’ of flower arrangements followed by coffee
outside.
Noelle, one of our loyal parishioners, who
had been in hospital for some time and as her name suggests, had a Christmas Eve
birthday. Her daughter Claire asked the congregation after our Carol Service to
video a rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ for her Mum on the steps of the Church.
Sadly, Noelle passed away in June, but we hope we cheered her up for her last
birthday.
The Holocaust Memorial
Day took place on 30th January in the Mansion house
when concerns about Putin and hate speech were raised; as we all know, it
wasn’t long before those concerns came to fruition. We pray for the people of Ukraine
as they face the tyranny of Putin.
We were glad to be able to resume tours
of the Church and Graveyard with visits from local schools and in March, a
tour by some of the clients of the Intercultural Drop-in Centre (who were
temporarily back in our Small Hall for most of the year) where I was able to
hand them a leaflet on St. Patrick explaining the Christian meaning behind our
Patron’s Saints Day. Also, in March we had the launch of the Tallaght
Heritage App in the Church.
In April we were delighted that the Whist
Drives resumed in the Small Hall on 3rd Monday of each month,
another sign of life getting back to normal. It wasn’t long before the Mother’s
Union ladies began meeting for coffee beginning in the summer, at the
coffee shop in the Civic Theatre. All parish organisations are back running
now.
Tallaght Community
Council (who organise Tallafest) asked me to write an account of the
parish’s experience of dealing with COVID for a time-capsule in Tallaght Hospital. I wrote of how I, along with
the help of my family, continued Sunday Services on FaceBook live during the
strict lockdowns and also my reflections on the pandemic.
On Sunday 8th May following
our Easter Vestry we had a presentation to Jim Bird who stepped
down as Hon. Treasurer after thirty years plus. We are very grateful to Jim for
all his work during that time. We also had presentations for Billy Gould,
who loyally served as Rector’s Church Warden for more than fifteen years and
also to Joyce Smart, our organist, who retired after over thirty years dedicated to the music of St.
Maelrauin’s. Our heartfelt thanks to these three parishioners, your service to
St. Maelruain’s over the years is very much appreciated
We normally had a concert by the wider
community in springtime pre Covid and we held the concert this year with the proceeds going to the Diocesan
fundraiser for U&Ukraine. The
evening was a great success and we raised twice as much more than in previous
years. The concert featured the local DAMS male voice choir who sang popular
music, Cara Daly who sang classical pieces and ‘Now and Then’ who sang numbers
from the Christian rock musicals which they had preformed previously for their
pre Easter concerts. It was a lovely evening and we were delighted to be able
to help the Ukrainian cause.
Our Confirmation
Service took place on 5th June in Christchurch on a very wet day after the
beautiful evening for our concert the night before. We had a large group of candidates
as confirmations didn’t take place during Covid, the candidates were Eoghan Beckett, Charlie Cox, Lucy Cox, Reuben McDermott, Zitalu
Okafor, Zubelu Okafor, Sam Nolan, Chloe Sharkey, Huxley Braden Samuel,
Breanna Bosswell Samuel and PJ Rigley. Despite the weather it was a lovely
service even though the young people were only allowed to have four guests
attend.
At our Family Service in June we were sad to say goodbye to Malik Sanusi and Tosin (nee Kuti)
along with their girls, Zara and Zayah (who are third generation parishioners)
as Malik took up a new work position in Manchester.
On 3rd July we had our first Blessing of the Graveyard Sunday (since COVID)
organised by the Dominican Priory. There was a good turn out and again, another
sign of life returning to our new normal.
On the Thursday 21st July we had a visit from
the Archbishop with Prof. Anne Lodge who was working on a report for our
Diocesan Synod about our International parishioners, a sample of whom she
interviewed.
At our family service in July we had a presentation to Amy
who has now moved to the UK. in recognition of working with our Good News
Club for sixteen years, she sang in the Music Group for fifteen years (including
singing and playing the Ukulele for a year & a half on Facebook live
services during the restrictions) and she also was a Boy’s Brigade leader for
fourteen years. We wish Amy the very best with her move to London.
In August the Tallaght Historical Society erected
a plaque on the grave for local writer and poet Alice Furlong who was a
contemporary of Maud Gonne.
Tallaght featured on 21st August in the RTE
programme Creedon’s Atlas, Tallaght was where the written history of Ireland began in the 8th century and
therefore along with Finglas was The Eyes of Ireland in the land of Saints
and Scholars. St. Maelruain’s Cross and Missal are in the centre of the current
GAA Dublin crest.
In September it was lovely to be back in Mount Seskin
Community College to give the 5th years a talk about our
denomination and to introduce myself to the 1st and 2nd
years. It was also lovely to see the resumption of parish activities with BB
starting their session with a BBQ in the Parish Centre Car Park on Sat 10th
September.
Friday 23rd was Culture Night and I’m
delighted to say that it was our best one ever, perhaps because an article
about Culture Night in the Echo Newspaper featured a beautiful photograph of
church by Lionel and of course we were mentioned on all social media platforms.
On Oct 1st we had a ‘Spring Clean’ of
the church suggested by Rebekkah Eddy with a few ladies and a gentleman to give
a helping hand. Thank you to all who
helped, it made a big difference. A big thank you to John and Regina Donohue
who have been painting the radiators and pipes in the church along with the
Church Porch since the summer, a much needed job and it looks smashing.
On Sun 16th October we had a surprise visit
from the Archbishop for our Harvest Service
at the 11.00am service
Baptisms On Saturday 29th January we had the baptism
of Ethan and Emma, the children of Jared and Mandy (nee Fletcher) Breffman. The
Baptism of Ryan Byrne took place on 30th April son of Stephen and
Alison. In October I baptised Oliver Hyland son of John and Suzanne
(McCoy). We pray for all these families as these children begin their spiritual
journey.
Funerals The
funeral of Bobby Wilson took place
on 22nd April here in St. Maelruain’s. We extended our deepest
sympathies to his wife Pat and family. Bobby was a founding member of our Table
Tennis Club.
We were also sad to have the
funeral of Hyacinth Blennerhassett
on 4th May, wife of the late Arthur and formerly late Christy. We
sent our condolences to her family and friends. Hyacinth will be sadly missed.
On Wednesday 18th May the
funeral of Brian Huet took place in
Newlands Cross Crematorium. We extended our deepest condolences to his wife
Patricia, family and friends.
The funeral of Philip
Mantle took place here on Monday 13th June. Our sincere
sympathies go to his wife Lorraine,
and to his family and friends. He was very generous with his skills as a roofer
to the parish.
On Saturday 18th June we
had the funeral of Noelle Lewis here
in St. Maelruain’s followed by burial in the Graveyard, as mentioned previously
in this letter Noelle was a much valued member of the congregation and we
extended our deepest condolences to her daughter Claire and to her wider family
and friends.
On 23rd June the funeral of one of our 8.30am
parishioners took place, Jenny Dunne,
our sympathies went to her husband Aidan and family, Jenny was originally from England.
The funeral of Noel Gorman took place on 21st October and our
condolences go to his wife Eileen, family and friends. Noel joined the
congregation in recent years and Eileen continues to watch the serives on
FaceBook live.
Weddings Congratulations to Amy Smart & Daniel
Sage who were married here in St. Maelruain’s on 1st
September on a beautiful sunny afternoon. I thanked them for coming to church
to get married as we haven’t had a wedding in five years, partly due to the
pandemic but also as a lot of couples now choose to have a one venue event and
have their ceremony in the same place as their reception. We wish Amy and
Daniel every future blessing.
On Oct 22nd we were also
delighted to have the wedding of Rebekkah
Eddy & Paul O’Dwyer. It was a
pleasure to hold another wedding in such quick succession and we were also
pleased to be able to give a warm Irish welcome to Rebekkah’s family from the United States,
congratulations to Rebecca (Select Vestry member) & Paul.
We submit Parish Notes to the Diocesan Church
Review Magazine on a monthly basis, which we also put up on the parish
website, anybody who would like to receive the notes by email or any other
parish information please send us your email to tallaghtparish@gmail.com.
Sunday Services (11am
Services also on Facebook Live 237+ services recorded and a 1000 + FB followers)
8.30am Service Holy Communion each
Sunday 11.00am
Service Holy Communion: 1st
& 3rd Sun of each
month. Morning Prayer: 2nd
& 5th Sundays of each month.
Family Service: 4th Sun of each month. 1st
Wed of the month Holy Communion
with prayers for the sick 10.00am
