A Changing Church

Priests and Parish Pastoral Council members from across the Diocese of Waterford and Lismore gathered in Clonmel during the week to hear plans outlined for the years ahead as changes take place owing to the declining number of vocations in the Diocese.

In the last three decades nearly all parishes have seen changes happen with the amount of priests working in parishes cut and some parishes have been left with no priest living and working in the parish, and are instead administered from neighbouring parishes.

In the future lay people could be asked to play an even greater role in most parishes that they are currently asked to.

Lay people could well be asked to carry out prayer services at funerals where there is no priest available to administer and could also be asked to carry out other functions like the distribution of ashes to the faithful on Ash Wednesday and to bless throats on the feast of Saint Blaise.

Parishes could also be brought together with one priest working as a moderator alongside different Pastoral Councils.

Parishes could also be administered by a Permanent Deacon or a lay person directed by a Priest from outside the Parish.

In the future where it is not possible to have a mass celebrated in a given church, a lay parishioner could be appointed to lead the people in a prayer service.

The last number of years has seen the number of Priests working in the Diocese significantly drop with Priests who are members of Religious Communities already working in a number of Parishes across the Diocese.

Two years ago the then newly appointed Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, the Most Very Reverend Aphonsus Cullinan was able to bring three priests from India to the Diocese to work in parishes in Clonmel, Carrick-on-Suir and Waterford City, but it is understood that there is no plans to bring any other priests in on Temporary Missions.

There are currently five parishes in the Diocese that do not have a working priest.

In West Waterford the Parish of Tallow is without and priest with the Parish Priest of nearby Ballyduff Upper travelling to Tallow to celebrate mass in the town.

Modeligo and Affane became the first parish not to have a priest and is administered from nearby Cappoquin and recently the Parish Priest of Clashmore and Kinsalebeg retired and the Parish Priest of Ring and Old Parish was appointed as a moderator working with other priests in the area to ensure that parishioners can attend mass on a Saturday evening or Sunday morning in their own parish.

In the east of the county there are two parishes currently without a Parish Priest.

Dunhill and Fenor is currently administered from Tramore while Butlerstown is administered from the Saint Paul’s Parish in Waterford City.

Currently all Parishes in County Tipperary that are part of Waterford and Lismore have at least one priest working in them.

The Diocese of Waterford and Lismore has four Diocesan Priest’s that were ordained since the turn of the Millennium with a further ten priests working that were ordained in the previous decade.

In the same time (1990-present) over 40 priests of the diocese have died, while an number of others have stepped aside from active ministry while a number of men have decided to be laicised.

At present priests are obliged to offer their resignation to their Bishop once they reach the age of 75, but because of the shortage of priests in the Diocese some ask or are asked to remain in active ministry as long as their heath allows them to do so.

At present the Diocese also has a number of priests in the double digits who are currently retired, but many are helping out in parishes at weekends as well as covering when priests are sick are on holiday.

In the Diocese there is currently at least one priest who has only taken time away from his ministry during the weekdays in recent years so that parishioners in his care can attend weekend masses without having to call on often what is often much in demand priests to stand in for him.

The then Bishop of Waterford and Lismore the Most Very Reverend William Lee began the process for preparing parishes for what lies ahead some years ago when he gathered parishes at a meeting in Dungarvan and it was explained to those that attended that  the parishes would have to be clustered into groupings and that the amount of masses on offer in each parish could have to be cut and the times of some masses would have to be changed so that they fell in such a way that allowed a priest from a neighbouring parish to come and celebrate the mass if needed while also celebrating mass in his own parish.

33 Jobs to Be Lost In Waterford

33 jobs are to be lost at one of Waterford longest manufacturing industries.

Staff at Waterford Stanley learned of the job losses this morning at a meeting which all workers at the plant were called to attend.

There is currently 57 people working at the factory on the IDA Industrial Estate and it is to be cut to 24 over the next five months.

Middleby Corporation which owns Waterford Stanley who makes cast iron heating stoves and cookers is to begin outsource the work needed to make the products.

The company says that it intends to continue to operate its sales, distribution, marketing and after sales service in Waterford.

The company is also set to close its Coalbrookdale Foundry in the UK which supplies cast iron to the Waterford plant.  

Management are to enter a formal 30 day consultation period with employees and their representatives to finalise the details of the job losses.

Business is to continue to operate as normal over the coming months while changes are implemented.  

18 months ago, management told employees at the Waterford plant that they were looking for 41 redundancies over the following months.

At the time there was about 100 people working in manufacturing and distribution working for the company.

Staff were informed at the time that the job losses were a cost cutting measure and all losses would be voluntary.

News of the job losses was announced to the public by Fianna Fail TD for Waterford Mary Butler this morning on the Déise Today programme on WLR.fm.

Mary Butler who is the Chairperson of the Oireachtas Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Committee as described the news of the job losses as a very sad day for Waterford.

Figures released by the Central Statistics Office show that unemployment in Waterford is the highest in the country at 9.4%

19 Beds to Close at Dungarvan Hospital

The Rehab Unit attached to Dungarvan Community Hospital is to close.

Patients at the Sacred Heart Unit were told over the weekend that the unit was to close with immediate effect.

Fianna Fail TD for Waterford Mary Butler has said that she was contacted over the weekend with the news.

The unit was built in 1996 and has twenty six beds which include beds for Physio, Rehab and Palliative Care beds.

Seven of the twenty six beds were closed in January with the remainder of the beds to go from the middle of this week.

It’s the second time in six months that such a bed unit closure for hospitals in Waterford was announced over a Bank Holiday weekend.

Over the October Bank Holiday weekend in 2016 it was announced that University Hospital Waterford was to have ten inpatient beds closed on a temporary basis due to a shortage of nurses.

Pilot Dies in County Waterford Accident

The pilot of a light aircraft which crashed near Dungarvan this afternoon has died.

The plane which he was piloting came down in a field near Dungarvan Golf Club at about 4-30pm.

The scene of the accident is being preserved pending the arrival of the Air Accident Unit who are expected to carry out a preliminary investigation this evening.

It is understood that the crash happened in a field of trees about 5k from Dungarvan about 200 metres from the main Waterford to Dungarvan road. Reports suggest that the man made a mayday call just before 4-30pm and attempted to land in a field.

Gardaí have told members of the media it appeared the man was killed instantly when the aircraft hit the ground.

Early reports suggest that the man was not from the area.

A stretch of the N25 close to where the plane came down was closed by Gardai and diversions are in place which could remain in place for a number of hours.

Gardai are appealing for any witness or anyone who noticed a low flying aircraft in the area this afternoon to contact them in Dungarvan on 058 48600

One Injured in Small Plane Crash near Dungarvan

One person has been seriously injured after a small airplane crash landed near Dungarvan this afternoon.

It is understood that the aircraft came down in a field close to the N25 in the Knocknagranagh area of county Waterford, near Dungarvan Golf Club.

The Road between the Knocknagranagh Cross and Bridgie Terries is closed off as the emergency services work in the area. Local diversions are in place.

It is believed that the injured person is a member of the Waterford Aero Club which operates from Waterford Regional Airport.

Reports suggest that the plane came down after 4-30pm.

The Irish Coastguard Helicopter, Rescue 117 was dispatched to the area to work with other Emergency Services personnel.

The accident happened in much the same area as where Howard Cox died two years ago when his plane also crashed in the area after he left Waterford Regional Airport in a home built plane.

The Air Accident Investigation Unit has already begun an investigation.  

19 people wait on a bed at University Hospital Waterford but other hospitals in the region have higher number

Figures released today by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation show that was 506 people on trolleys across the Country.

The largest number waiting on trolleys is at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Tullamore which had 39 people waiting on a bed.

Closer to home and at hospitals in the region numbers are also high.

Thirty six people were waiting on a trolley at Cork University hospital, while at the close by Mercy University Hospital there was eighteen people waiting for a bed.

At both South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel and Saint Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny there were twenty nine people waiting for a bed.

Nineteen patients were waiting for a bed at University Hospital Waterford while at Wexford General Hospital the number waiting on a bed was eleven.

Former Rescue 117 crew member is the first casualty of Helicopter crash off the Co Mayo Coast

A former member of the Rescue 117 Coast Guard Helicopter has been named as the first casualty in this morning’s Helicopter crash off the County Mayo Coast.

45 year old pilot Dara Fitzpatrick has been with the search and rescue service for more than 20 years.

Three other crew members are still missing as the search continues.

She was recovered from the water in a critical condition at first light this morning, some hours after the rescue 116 helicopter disappeared.

Tributes have started to pore in for the deceased pilot.

Gerard O’Flynn, a spokesperson for the Coast Guard said that “Dara is the most senior pilot with CHC – with the company close to 20 years,”.

“Outside of her work as a pilot, she did an enormous amount of work in water safety and was always available to do school visits and highlight basic water safety.

“For all of us involved in the Coast Guard, and particularly her family, it does come as a big shock and we want to extend our sincere sympathies to her sympathy to all her family and indeed to her flying colleagues at CHC.”

The search operation for the other crew members of Rescue 116 is ongoing. The Coast Guard helicopters on scene are being assisted in their search by the Air Corps Casa, RNLI boats, the Naval Services’s LE Róisín, garda divers and local fishing vessels.

Dara Fitzpatrick started working in search and rescue in March 1993, moving from Shannon to Waterford after almost 10 years.

In 2013, she was part of the Coast Guard’s first ever all-female mission alongside her co-pilot Carmel Kirby. She was also filmed for a RTÉ documentary series on Rescue 117 which saw her crew followed for six months.