Newsletter
Tallaght Parish Newsletter
News Letter 2023
This Newsletter is accompanying our annual Gift Day letter which is posted out to all parishioners. As we go to print, we have learned that we have a leak in the roof which is damaging the plaster work of the Church that urgently needs to be repaired at a cost of €18.228. There are also leaks / damp in the four corners of the church and we have a quote of €11,123 for each corner to repair in the future. We struggle with the day to day running costs of the parish so this repair work, which will have to be addressed, is a major expense which the parish cannot afford.
We have slowly been rebuilding our Sunday attendance in Church especially since the beginning of Lent. I have encouraged the children / young people to sit up front of the Church. Our numbers have increased from around thirty to around fifty with a couple of Sundays having over seventy in Church, which is encouraging. We are very grateful to the Indian members of our congregation who have hosted most of our ‘Coffee’ in the Main Hall following our Family Services. Thank you to Gerard Moody and the Choir and also to our organist Braden Samuel for their commitment each Sunday.
I was asked to preach in Kilnamanagh by their new German parish priest Fr. Frank Drescher on 11th November ’22 and then on 6th December ‘22 I was invited to their party for their Confirmation candidates. Christian Unity week was from 18th - 19th January and I preached in Kilnamanagh. In April Fr. Frank invited his home bishop and staff to Dublin and on Friday 28th I went along with them to St. Partrick’s Cathedral for Evensong, after the service I gave them a short tour of Dublin followed by a meal in town. On 3rd July we had the Blessing of the Graveyard Sunday organised by the Dominican Priory.
On Sunday 8th October ‘23 I was invited back to Kilnamanagh to preach at their Pet Service
The Tallaght Campus of TUD (Technical University of Dublin formerly, ITT College) used the church for their Accounting and Professional Studies Prize Giving on Thursday 17th November and they had their Remembrance Service the next day. On 20th April TUD Tallaght had their Prize Awards in the Church for Bio Pharma Studies. I was over in the College at the start of the academic year introducing myself in my role as part time chaplain. While the College has been renting our Main Hall for the last thirty years, we are conscious that they have finally opened their new Sports Complex on campus.
On 4th December we launched the ‘Tree of Angels’ in the Churchyard, in memory of lost babies. Mellissa Luttrell along with her Dad, Mark, originated the idea after her own sad neonatal loss. It’s a way for those who have lost a child to remember.
On Monday 19th December Old Bawn Community School donated ten hampers for the needy in the parish which I gave to families who receive assistance from Protestant Aid or Country Air Association.
We had our Christmas Services which went off well and the church, as usual, was beautifully decorated by our very talented Flower Guild, they also did amazing work for our Easter Services and more recently, Harvest Service. The Guild is looking for new helpers, no experience necessary, male or female and a warm welcome awaits, if you’d like to help please contact the parish office 462 6006. If we don’t get new helpers we will not be able to continue to have flowers in Church every Sunday… please consider helping, you don’t have to have any experience. Women’s World Day of Prayer took place this year in Holy Rosary Church, Ballycragh on Friday 4th March. ‘Now and Then’ performed ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ in The Priory in the week before Holy Week. I was invited to the Harvest Service in Holy Rosary on Sunday 10th September ‘22.
We held our Easter Vestry on Sunday 23rd April. We are very grateful to our Vestry members, for the new members who have come on board and we thank those who stood down this year. The accounts were presented by Richard Ensor, accountant. Our monthly Select Vestry meetings have continued mostly on Zoom. We hope to have our future meetings face to face as most people have had their recent vaccine.
Our Girl’s Brigade Company had their 50th Anniversary Display on 22nd April, when Fiona Monaghan stepped down as Captain, thank you Fiona for all the hard work and service you have given to St. Maelruain’s as Captain over the years. Congratulation to Rose Crampton who has taken on the office. St. Maelruain’s Boys Brigade had a ‘Parents Evening’ on Friday 21st April and a fun evening was enjoyed by all. They opened in September with a Barbeque which included parents.
Aside from our GB and BB Companies we are delighted that all our Parish Organisations are back up and running normally following on from the Pandemic. Our Bowls Club, Crafty Chatters, Mothers’ Union, Parish Coffee Morning, Table Tennis Club and Whist Drives are always open to new members. Please check out our website www.stmaelruains.ie or contact the parish office 462 6006 for more information.
On Friday 3rd May we hosted a concert in the church with the Firhouse Singers in aid of Syria, on Sunday 28th May, Cara Daly organised a Spring Concert in aid of the Parish, which we are very grateful for and on Friday 2nd June the conductor from ‘Now and Then’ held a concert in the Church.
We had tours of the Church and Graveyard beginning with a visit from 4th Class from St. Martin de Porres Primary School on 4th May for a bi-lingual tour followed by a visit from St. Mary’s University, Kansas, who were visiting TUD, across the road from us, on Friday 11th May. On Wednesdays 7th and 16th June we had double class visits from Scoil Maelruain’s. Local historian Tomas Maher visited with a group of staff from South Dublin County Council for Heritage Week. The Church was open on Culture Night on Friday 22nd September where we had a steady flow of visitors.
Parish Registers 2022
Baptism: On 12th November we had the baptism of Oliver James Berkley, grandson of Liz Berkley.
Funerals: The funeral of Alison O’Halloran took place on Wed 22nd February, on 1st March we had the funeral of Robert Scales. On Friday 31st March the funeral of Mary Fell took place and on 1st April we had the funeral of Mervyn Ingram.
Burial of Ashes: On 28th July the ashes of Tineke Klassen were buried in the Graveyard, Tineke was Mum to parishioner Hendrikje Mahon. The ashes of William James were buried in our graveyard on 2nd September.
Memorial Service: A memorial service for Victor Olowu (Dad of parishioner, Lydia Oropo) who was visiting Ireland from Nigeria when he passed away, took place in St. Maelruain’s on 8th July.
First Anniversaries Remembered on Sunday Services: On the 15th June, Jenny Dunne and Noelle Lewis (we also remembered Sam Lewis’ fifth anniversary) and Noel Gorman on 15th October.
We extend our deepest sympathies to all the family and friends of those bereaved.
Wedding: on 7th July Amy Deverell and Louis Oakes were married; we wish them both every future happiness.
Confirmation: On Pentecost Sunday 28th June Alex Nolan was confirmed in Christchurch Cathedral.
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 including the Gift Day Letter please send us your email to tallaghtparish@gmail.com.
Christmas 2023 in St. Maelruain’s:
Sunday 17th December: Carol service 11am
Christmas Eve Sunday 24th December 8.30am & 11am &11pm Midnight Service.
Christmas Day 8.30am & 11am Holy Communion.
New Year’s Eve Sunday 31st December 8.30am & 11am & at 11.15pm Watch Light Service
OCTOBER 2023
Mothers’ Union
We had our opening Holy Communion Service on Mon 11th September, Rev Avril preached and the Rector celebrated. Rev Avril spoke about the healing of the man with the shriveled hand and how Jesus asked him to stretch out his hand, she asked how do we stretch out our hands to others? The outstretched hand is a symbol of openness and healing. This all was very relevant to the Mothers' Union theme for this year which is Transformation. We thanked Gerard for playing the hymns for us. After the service we had a cup of tea and coffee, by Eileen and Yvonne brought one of her famous coffee cakes which we all enjoyed.
Our next meeting will be an outing to Dun laoghaire Lifeboat Station on Saturday 14th October. We will meet at the church at 10am and hope to share lifts. If you would like to come please let me know. We plan to have lunch in Dun laoghaire after the tour and hopefully the weather will be kind and we can explore Dun Laoghaire. Although it's still a good bit off we are planning our Christmas outing to the Panto, Cinderella in the Civic Theatre on Monday 11th December. The show starts at 6.30pm and we will meet for tea at 4.30pm beforehand. If you would like to go please let me know as seats are selling fast and I need to give numbers to the theatre.
Saoirse our local Womens' Refuge, continue to be very appreciative of our on going monthly donations and we received a lovely email from them thanking the branch recently which I shared with our members last night. The World Day of Prayer gave the organisation a very generous donation recently from the collections at the annual service in March. On our returns form we name Saoirse as a local charity needing support. Valerie
Bowls Club
We reopened on Tuesday 12th September. Some of our members are still away on holidays but we look forward to seeing them back soon. We welcome three new members to the club: Pam, John and Pat.
We send sympathy to Hazel Walshe and family on the sudden death of her brother Dermot.
Girls’ Brigade
The 26th Co. Girls’ Brigade celebrated our 50th Birthday at our Annual Display held last April. This was a very special display (our first since COVID-19 ) where our current members were joined by lots of past members, put on an amazing display of activities from dancing, skipping, drill down, marching and lots more.
We also celebrated Fiona Monahan’s inspiring leadership as Captain of the Company for the past 10 years. We really appreciate her outstanding commitment to the Company and wish her the very best as she takes a well earned rest from this role.
As a long standing Officer of the Company, I am delighted to take up the role of Captain of 26th Company and am looking forward to working with the girls and the dedicated team of leaders.
We are on a recruitment drive for new members in order to keep the Company vibrant. Therefore, I am asking you to spread the word amongst your families, friends and neighbours etc. to help us boost our numbers. Rose Crampton
Boys’ Brigade
Boys’ Brigade had its annual welcome back BBQ to kick off its winter session. The 2nd was delighted to welcome members from other Boys’ Brigade companies on the day. It’s been a good end to the summer with the 7th Company hosting several activities. A huge thank you from all the leaders and boys for these well organised events. The 2nd will officially kick off its Friday nights on the 6th October with a casual non-uniform night. We look forward to seeing both old and new smiling faces. As always we are looking for new members, so if you know of any boys that may be interested please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Parish Coffee Morning
Our upcoming dates for Coffee Mornings are Friday 27th October, and Friday 24th November, at 10.30am - 12.30pm, this is our monthly social gathering for our older parishioners. If you would like to join us, you are welcome to drop in for a chat, a cuppa and cake.
Flower Guild.
The Church will be decorated for the Harvest on Saturday October 21st at 10am to 11am. We hope as many of the Flower Guild as possible will come to help. We are short of arrangers at the moment due to different circumstances, so if anyone in the Parish would be willing to do flowers for two weeks in the year, it would be much appreciated. Many thanks - Regina.
Table Tennis
As I write, we are planning to reopen on September 21st at 8 pm in the Parish Centre. We are open for new members of any standard and look forward to seeing our members back. No experience necessary. Regina
Whist Drive
Our October Whist Drive will take place on Monday 16th October in the Small Hall, all welcome! Gerard
Crafty Chatters
We meet on the 1st & 3rd Tuesdays of each month from 2pm - 4pm in the Small Hall. Bring along whatever craft you are working on or perhaps learn something new. A warm and friendly atmosphere awaits you. Liz
News Letter 2022
Last November, 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 sometime 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 services on Fakebook 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