Limerick church celebrates 200th anniversary

DROMCOLLOGHER'S St Bartholomew’s Church commemorate its 200 year anniversary on Sunday, September 8. For the bicentenary of the foundation of the church, a special Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Brendan Leahy on that day, at 2pm.

Everyone that may be interested is invited to attend this special occasion in the parish’s history. There will be refreshments served afterwards at the Community Hall.

Today’s Saint Bartholomew’s church was built in 1824 by Father Michael Fitzgerald, who acquired the site in 1819. He bought the site from Robert Jones Staveley of Glenduff Castle, Co Limerick, a judge of the High Court who had bought Dromcollogher and its surrounding lands from the Courtney estate in 1807. A striking aspect of the building of the Church in Dromcollogher was the patronage it enjoyed from the Catholic gentry families in the area, including the contributions of the Sheehy and the Hannigan families.

Renovations were carried out in 1861 by Father Patrick Quaid, who also built a new church in neighbouring Broadford. Fr Michael Byrne refurbished and decorated the church in the early 20th century, with improvements designed in 1906-1909 by the Limerick-based architect Brian Edward Fitzgerald Sheehy. The apse and many of the stained-glass windows were added at this time. In its original form, Saint Bartholomew’s was probably a T-shaped church.

In the 1980s, the walls of the nave were removed and replaced with glass panels, forming light-filled, cloister-like side aisles. The glass panels are the work of Kevin Kelly and the Abbey Stained Glass Studios. The glass is engraved with both religious and secular scenes, including scenes from the life of Saint Bartholomew.

Pre-Norman churches, part of a ‘list of churches and land of the see of Limerick’ compiled in 1201 and contained in The Black Book of Limerick (the ancient historical manuscript about the diocese) mentioned the Church in Dromcollogher as
well as references to the churches of Killagholehane, Cloncrew, Mahoonagh, Killeedy and Tullylease.

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An early mediaeval church in Dromcollogher was destroyed by war in 1302. It was rebuilt and was known as the “capella Dromcolkylle in Corcomohid” in 1418, when it was part of the larger parish of Corcomohide.

The ruin of original church for the parish of is located in the graveyard and stands in the “Glebe of Carhooard West and the town of Dromcollogher”. It could be that the ruin in the graveyard is the successor of the original church. Some who have examined it suggest it more likely dates from the fifteenth century and was most likely built by the O’Nunans.

Father William O’Donnell, who was parish priest for 33 years and died in 1876, is the only parish priest buried inside the church. Four parish priests are buried in the church grounds: Michael Byrne; Canon James Foley; Canon John Reeves; and Archdeacon Hugh O’Connor.

The very precious marble statue of Our Lady, sculpted by Padraig Pearse’s father, was acquired by Fr Tomas De Bhál when he was curate in the parish from 1910 to 1922. James Pearse (1839-1900) donated the statue of the Virgin Mary to the left of the High Altar.

Of the 48 victims of the 1926 Cinema Disaster in Dromcollogher, 46 people who died in that great tragedy are buried in a mass grave on the grounds of the church. On the night of Sunday, September 5, 1926 at 9.15pm, the showing of a film was to take place in the upstairs loft area of a store belonging to a local hardware shop. The films on show were to be a short film called ‘False Alarm’ and the main film called ‘The Decoy.’

During the showing of the second film at ten minutes to ten o’clock a lighting candle fell upon the highly flammable Nitrate Film reels. The fire spread rapidly from the table, across the floor to the partition and the wainscoting, setting up a dense mass of smoke and fumes. Many of the crowd rushed the small exit, carrying with them the burning reel which landed near the ground where it set fire to the stairs/ladder, blocking the only exit. After just 10 or 15 minutes the roof fell in, the floor gave way and all within were lost.