archangel
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Some of the seating at the rear of the church was removed a few years ago. I don’t know about a ‘gathering space’ being created. It seems that the purpose was to make a very large nave appear less empty by removing seats at the back with the effect of having people sit further up the church.
This is an excellent thread, inspiring, informative and has given ordinary parishioners the courage to question what is happening to some of our beautiful churches in Ireland today. Our Parish church St.Gabriels Dollymount is due for ‘reordering’ of the sanctuary in early January. This entails,inter alia, removing exquisite marble and brass altar rails. St. Gabriels was opened in 1956and at the time considered one of the finest churches in the diocese.The architect we believe was Louis Peppard and any information on his work would be welcome. St. Gabriels is not a listed building so any dissension to the plans does not carry the weight of the Cobh cathedral case. The reordering is going ahead, with diocesan approval, despite the wishes of a substantial number of parishioners. A survey of a representative sample in the parish found that 72% of parishioners did not agree with the removal of the present altar rails. Will St. Gabriels be just another casualty in the reorganisation and destruction of Irish Catholic churches?
