Cathal Barry
There will be no Catholic chapel at Dublin’s St James’s hospital for the first time in over a century as plans are finalised to demolish the current building and replace it with a one-size-fits-all multi-faith centre.
Staff members and local residents have expressed disappointment that the 19th Century Catholic chapel, which is being bulldozed to make way for a new children’s hospital, will not be re-sited and instead will be subsumed into the new €850,000 multi-faith place of worship.
They insist that while there should be worship space for diverse religious traditions, the fact that the overwhelming majority of patients and staff are Catholic means that the hospital should continue to retain a Catholic chapel.
It is understood that demolition costs for the chapel, which has been described by An Taisce as of “architectural and historical significance” will run to an additional €100,000, bringing the total costs to almost €1m.
Replacement
Fr Diarmuid Byrne, Administrator of neighboring parishes of Rialto and Dolphins Barn told The Irish Catholic that many of his parishioners who regularly attend Mass at the St James’s chapel have expressed their “disappointment and concern” that the building will be demolished without a replacement.
“It’s an historic building that has been around for a long time. A lot will be sad to see it go,” he said.
Fr Byrne said a Catholic oratory would be a more appropriate replacement for the chapel.
“The majority of patients and a lot of the hospital staff are Catholics so I’d be in favour of it being replaced with a Catholic oratory,” Fr Byrne said.
Meanwhile, Sr Pat O’Donovan RSM, head of healthcare at the Conference of Religious Ireland (CORI) told The Irish Catholic that she felt diversity could be accommodated without the need to subsume the Catholic place of worship.
“In light of Ireland becoming an increasingly diverse society there is clearly a need for a multi-faith space in hospitals,” she said.
However, underlining the fact that “the vast majority of patients are still Catholics”, Sr O’Donovan insisted that “a need remains for a Catholic place of worship on the hospital grounds”.
The Irish Catholic understands that at a meeting later this week assurances are to be sought from hospital management about the place of Catholic worship and Catholic symbols in the new multi-faith centre.
St James’s Hospital was unable to provide a spokesperson as The Irish Catholic went to press this week.
