Man Dies after Portlaw Assault

Gardai in Tramore have begun a murder investigation following the death of a man in Portlaw this afternoon.

Emergency services were called to a house in the Coolfin Estate this afternoon at 2.45pm.

A local man was taken from the area by ambulance personnel and brought to University Hospital Waterford with serious injuries, but was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival.

It is understood that the man was involved in a row with a man in his 20’s who is also from the Portlaw area.

Gardai arrested the man and are detaining him for questioning at Tramore Garda Station. Gardai are investigating if an implement or weapon was used during the course of the row.

Local Sinn Fein Councillor Declan Clune has said that "The community is in shock - both men involved in this would be well known. They are from respectable families and the whole town is devastated by this - especially coming up to Christmas." Fianna Fail Councillor John O’Leary has said ‘It is a sad day for Waterford’.

Gardaí have also commenced door-to-door inquiries to determine if anyone heard or saw anything suspicious in the hours before the man's death.

A post mortem examination will be conducted tomorrow

Work Starts On Making Waterford Priest A Saint

A Waterford priest may be on the path to Sainthood after over 100 people came together in Clonmel recently to talk about him and his short life.

Popular priest Father Colm O’Brien served in Saints Peter and Paul Parish in Clonmel for eight years after he was ordained in 2000 at Saint Paul’s Church in Waterford before he was transferred by the then Bishop of Waterford and Lismore William Lee to the Parish of Tramore and Carbally in the summer of 2008, but he was to die after battling cancer on September 16, 2009. Father Colm was just 36 years old at the time.

Fr. Colm was born in Waterford City on 20 January 1973, the son of Thomas and the late Josie O’Brien, living in Belvedere Dive and attended school at Saint Paul’s Primary and Secondary Schools in Lisduggan.

From an early age Father Colm always showed signs of wanting to be a priest and once he had completed his secondary education he began his priestly studies at the former Saint John’s College Seminary in Waterford City, completing his final year of studies at the National Seminary at Maynooth College after Saint John’s was closed due to declining numbers entering the college to study.

The current Bishop of Waterford and Lismore Alphonsus Cullinan recently said that many people had been impressed by the character and holiness shown by Fr Colm O’Brien.

Bishop Cullinan said the question of promoting his cause for beatification and canonisation has arisen.

Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan called the meeting to explore whether the live of Fr Colm was marked by the “heroic virtue” which would justify the Church calling Fr Colm a ‘Servant of God’.

To become a Saint the Bishop in a given Diocese usually initiates the investigation.

Any Catholic or group of Catholics can request that the bishop open a case. They will need to name a formal intermediary, called the “postulator,” who will promote the cause of the saint. At this point, the candidate is called “a servant of God.”

A formal investigation examines “servant of God’s” life. Those who knew the candidate are interviewed, and affidavits for and against the candidate are reviewed.

Also, the candidate’s writings – if any exist – are examined for consistency with Catholic doctrine. A “promoter of justice” named by the local bishop ensures that proper procedures are followed and a notary certifies the documentation.

The proceedings of the investigation, called “Acta” or “The Acts,” are forwarded to the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints in Rome. The Congregation for the Causes of the Saints is large, with a prefect, a secretary, undersecretary and a staff of 23 people. There are also over 30 cardinals and bishops associated with the congregation’s work at various stages.

The Congregation for the Causes of the Saints appoints a “relator” (one of five who currently work for the congregation) who supervises the postulator in writing a position paper called a “positio.” The positio argues for the virtues of the servant of God and can be thousands of pages long. The congregation examines the positio and members vote “yes” or “no” on the cause. “Yes” votes must be unanimous.

The final decision lies with the pope. When he signs a “Decree of Heroic Virtue,” the person becomes “venerable.” Then two stages remain: beatification and sainthood.

Throughout most of Catholic history, the canonization process was rigorous. One of the key figures in the investigation in the Vatican was the “devil’s advocate,” who functioned like an opposing attorney by challenging the candidate’s holiness. This is the origin of the often-used English phrase referring to someone who takes a position to challenge another person to prove a point more fully.

In the early ‘70’s, Pope Paul VI revised the canon of the saints to exclude those whose historical existence could not be verified. For example, St. Christopher, the protector of travelers, was removed, although many Catholics still have a St. Christopher medal in their automobiles.

In 1983, then Pope John Paul II who would later become a Saint himself changed the waiting period from 50 years to five years after a candidate’s death, one of a number of new rules he brought in.

Speaking after the meeting in Clonmel Bishop Cullinan said “it was a wonderful meeting, celebrating the holiness, goodness, simplicity and faith and it was a beautiful sense of grace on the night”, adding “he was a person who touched a lot of people. He would arrive late to almost everything because he would stop to talk to everybody from the car to the house and he couldn’t get from one end of the street to the other without having several conversations”.

Bishop Cullinan is appealing to people who knew Fr Colm O’Brien to send their accounts to info@waterfordlismore.ie marking the subject line ‘Fr Colm O’Brien.

Fr Colm was buried with his mother who died some years before him in the grounds of the Sacred Heart Church in Ferrybank.

 

Changes in Rose of Tralee Competition

 

 

 

          Waterford will only be represented in the Rose of Tralee Festival every two years after organisers decided to give the Festival a revamp.

          Organisers recently confirmed that under revamped rules, the heats which took place in recent years to select who will go forward to represent their county in the televised stages of the competition will no longer take place.

          Instead each county will get to take to the stage on a bi-annual basis with only Kerry, Cork and Dublin contestants selected each year.

          Organisers have said that to ensure that every ‘Rose’ enjoys the ultimate positive experience during her year as her regions ambassador festival organisers had decided to revamp the selection process by removing the regional qualification process and raising the age limit at which point entrants can enter.

The Executive Chair of the Rose of Tralee International Festival, Anthony O’Gara, said: “Moving from the Regional Festival (staged from 2004 to 2015) to bringing all our Roses directly to the Rose of Tralee International Festival for the past three years has been generally very positively received. There is one challenging aspect to the new format that does not sit well with any of us and that we want to address, the selection of 32 Roses from 66 for the TV Selection. Regardless of how sensitively we handle that, it is not in-keeping with our ethos or our tradition. Our focus is to celebrate and respect the passion and emotion, and indeed the time and financial investment that every Rose, her family and centre invest with us.”

The Rose of Tralee International Festival will celebrate its sixtieth year running in August 2019.

Waterford has won the competition on three occasions. Orla Burke won in 1977 and six years later Brenda Hyland was the winner. In this year’s competition Kirsten Mate Maher became Waterford’s third winner of the competition and the third mixed race winner following on from Rose Luzveminda O'Sullivan from Galway in 1998 and London Rose, Rose Clare Kambamettu in 2010.

 

 

Man Dies Following Portlaw Assault

A man has died following an assault in Portlaw this afternoon.

It is understood that the man is in his 50’s and that Gardai are investigating an assault.

Emergency services were called to a house in Portlaw at 2-45pm.

A man was taken from the scene by Ambulance to University Hospital Waterford where he was pronounced dead shortly after his arrival.

Gardai arrested a man in his 20’s at the scene and are detaining him at Tramore Garda Station under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984.

 

Man Dies in Waterford Gas Leak

A man has died after a gas leak in a house in Waterford City.

The incident happed in the Connolly Place area of the city this evening.

Fire crews, the Gardai, the National Ambulance Service and staff from Gas Networks Ireland were quickly on the scene.

Early indications suspect that man died from Carbon Monoxide poisoning.

It is the second explosion in the city in 48 hours.

On Sunday evening a man was rushed to University Hospital Waterford after an apparent gas explosion at his house in the Ballytruckle Road of the city to be treated for serious burns.

The injured man was later removed to the burns unit of Cork University Hospital.

The body of the man who died this evening will be removed to University Hospital Waterford for a post-mortem.

The scene will be preserved overnight for a technical examination tomorrow.

Man rescued of South East Coast

The Irish Coast Guard helicopter based at Waterford Airport and an RNLI crew at Youghal combined earlier today to get a small fishing boat with one person on board towed to safety after it got into difficulty of the coast of Youghal.

The Alarm was raised just before lunchtime when the fishing boat began to take water on board.

The Lifeboat crew managed to get a pump on board the small boat before towing it back to shore.

The Helicopter crew remained on the scene for the duration of the operation and returned to Waterford once the sole occupant was back on land.

Waterford and Lismore To Get Second Permanent Deacon

The number of priest working actively in the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore has dropped dramatically since the turn of the Millennium and are expected to drop even further in the next decade, but the Diocese is to get a second Permanent Deacon in the coming weeks.

Dunhill man Brendan Gallagher is to be ordained a Permanent Deacon by the Bishop of Waterford and Lismore Alphonsus Cullinan at the Sacred Heart Church in Dunhill at 3pm on Sunday October 1.

Two years ago Brendan was accepted as a candidate for the Permanent Diaconate Programme in the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore in a ceremony where the chief celebrant was Bishop Cullinan, assisted by Mgr. Nicholas O Mahony who is the Vicar General of the Diocese and also the Priest in Charge of the Parish of Dunhill and Fenor with the last number of years.

Just over twelve months ago Brendan took the next step on his journey to become a Permanent Deacon when he was instituted an acolyte and as a Lector at a ceremony at the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity in Waterford with Bishop Cullinan again the principal celebrant.

As a Lector Brendan became in a position to instruct adults and children in faith and prepare them to receive the Sacraments. He can speak about the Liturgy and minister to the sick. He can assist priests and deacons on the altar and in Eucharistic ceremonies.

In 2001 the Irish Episcopal Conference received permission from the Holy See to proceed with the restoration of the Permanent Diaconate on the Island of Ireland.

Eight years later the Bishops appointed a national training authority to approve and monitor formation of suitable candidates to be Permanent Deacons, and the first ordinations took place in the following years.

The first responsibility of the deacon is to be an effective visible sign of Christ who came to serve rather than to be served.  Although the ministry of the deacon may be exercised on a part-time basis, he remains at all times a deacon and he is called, in his life-style, to reflect this.

Other duties of a Permanent Deacon include:

• Assisting the priest at the celebration of the Eucharist
• Bringing the Eucharist to the sick at home and in hospitals
• The formation of altar servers and of acolytes
• Presiding at Exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament
• The celebration of Baptism
• Celebrating marriages (with the appropriate delegation)
• Presiding at funerals

• Proclaiming the Gospel at the Liturgy
• Preaching the homily
• Participating in sacramental preparation programmes
• The formation of readers
• Facilitating study of and prayer with the scriptures

• Facilitating the development of lay ministry
• Visiting the sick
• Visiting prisoners
• Visiting the bereaved
• Youth ministry, and the facilitation of peer-ministry among young people
• Promoting awareness of the social teaching of the Church
• The promotion of justice and human rights

He receives his mission from the Bishop of his Diocese, and will be assigned to work as a member of a team, normally under the leadership of a parish priest.  He is called to minister in close co-operation with priests and with members of the lay faithful who are entrusted with various ministries.  

Permanent Deacons are not intended to replace lay ministers.  In many places, they play a key role in the development and co-ordination of lay ministry.  Neither are deacons intended to be “mini-priests,” making up for a shortage of vocations.  The Vatican Council is quite clear that, alongside the diaconate, the role of the ordained priesthood must continue to be fostered, because without the priest there is no Eucharist and without the Eucharist there is no Church.

The first Permanent Deacon in the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore was ordained in 2015, when Dr. Lazarus Gidolf was ordained in St. Oliver’s Church in Clonmel by Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan in front of a large gathering of Priests including Very Rev. Fr. Pat Fitzgerald who is the Diocesan Director for the Permanent Diaconate as well as Parish Priest of the Saint Paul’s Parish in Waterford City, Parishioners and members of the Indian Community as well as members of Lazarus family and friends.

Brendan Gallagher will be known to many through sporting circles and was for many years very involved with Ladies Football in the county and was for a time the Chairman of the Ladies Football County Board.