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New Chapel
Official Opening at Blacklion
by Fr J Byrne WF
Ten years ago our college at Blacklion was blessed
and opened by The Most Reverend Bishop Austin Quinn of Kilmore. But
it was not complete. It had no chapel and in all these ten years has
had to make do with a converted classroom. As the whole working day
of a student for the priesthood must centre round the chapel, the plans
to complete our building by the addition of a worthy chapel were never
forgotten, and a special fund to finance the venture was kept open during
the years.
(source : Robbie Dempsey)
The new Chapel, nearing completion *
On Tuesday, 26th April, His Lordship returned
to Blacklion to complete what he had begun ten years ago : to solemnly
bless the new chapel. Among those present for this occasion were Mr
Hilliard, the Minister of defence, with Mrs Hilliard ; Mr White the
architect, with Mrs White, and Mr Kelly, the contractor, with Mrs Kelly.
First Mass
The blessing was followed by the first Mass in the new chapel, concelebrated
by Father Provincial, the Parish Priest and Curate of Blacklion, and
Fathers Maguire and Byrne. Many who had never assisted at a concelebration
were deeply impressed. In his sermon at the end of this Mass, his Lordship
recalled the words of the Vatican Council which stress the missionary
duty of all, and in the first place of the bishops, and added that it
was therefore a duty for him to be there on that day.
At the lunch, Father Provincial thanked all those who had helped in
the realisation of our long delayed plans. He had a special words of
thanks for His Lordship, the architect and the contractor. In his reply,
the Bishop congratulated the White Fathers on completing their building
and expressed the hope that the diocese would give effective help to
the missionary effort, especially by providing many vocations for the
Missions. God, he said, would not allow the diocese to go short of priests
if it gave generously of its children to the missionary cause.
Guests
Our guests included a large representative body of the clergy of Kilmore
diocese ; the Superiors General of the Columban Fathers and the Kiltegan
Fathers, the Provincials of the Camillians and the Society of the Divine
Word and representatives of the Mill Hill Fathers, the Passionists,
the Canons Regular of Kilnacrot and the Servite fathers. The many congregations
in and around the locality were also represented.
Open Days
Sunday, May 1st, was an Open day for all our friends living within a
few miles of us, when almost 500 people came to spend the day with us.
On May 8th we welcomed many of our good friends and benefactors from
farther afield. Over 300 came for lunch and tea, representing practically
every county in Ireland. We wish to take this occasion of thanking them
all, once again, for their great kindness and charity to us and for
the help they gave us in making our dream of a new chapel come true.
We wish them all God's blessings.
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*Robbie Dempsey writes (6th October 2005)
:
" . . . Underneath the Chapel we had our Recreation Hall
— quite a sizeable room — very bright, given those extensive
floor-to-ceiling windows that you can see. Now here's a strange
thing. I arrived at The Black in Sept 67 and the Chapel had just
been built in 66. But the walls of the Rec Room were already in
dire need of repainting so we duly got stuck into that job by
the Autumn, (using old cassocks for painter's smocks). Master
painter and 'artiste extraordinaire' was Pat McDermott. See top
photo 'with Mondrian' [Gallery] page 167 thanks to Tony Smyth.
" (included below)
On
Gallery Page 167 Tony Smyth wrote : " The 'Submarine'
was a lower level room (not quite a basement but below ground
level) that was mostly disused while I was in Blacklion so it
was decided, if I recall correctly, to turn it into some form
of alternative rec room. "
To
clarify, he later wrote : "The 'Submarine'
and the Recreation Hall were two separate rooms. The Recreation
Room was, as indicated, immediately below the Chapel and featured
the 'Mondrian Wall' , as per the photo, but the 'Submarine' which
is mentioned in the text associated with this photo was at the
north end of the building (pretty much directly below the main
'conference' room, where the stage was located.) — at
an even lower level than the Recreation Room .
Gallery 167 features photos from both rooms.
In addition there is a photo of the wall opposite the 'Mondrian'
in the Recreation Room in Gallery 168 which shows the floor to
ceiling windows that Robbie refers to."
(included below)
(Source : Tony Smyth)
St Augustine's Recreation Room, with Dick Moran and Pat McHale
in the foreground.
(Source : Tony Smyth)
St Augustine's Recreation Room. Seated in the foreground,
it looks like Chris Wallbank.
In the background standing Seamus McShane with Fr. Joe Mullen
sitting in front of him.
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