Meelick church celebrates 600th anniversary

On July 5 St Francis’ Church, Meelick, Co. Galway, celebrated 600 years since its foundation.

The church was originally a Franciscan friary, becoming a diocesan church after the Famine, and the association with the Franciscans was marked by the presence of a number of the order.

The Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown arrived by boat from Banagher in the company of Bishop John Kirby of Clonfert, Fr Hugh McKenna OFM, Provincial of the Franciscans with a number of friars from Athlone and Dublin, Msgr Cathal Geraghty and Fr John Naughton PP.

The Franciscans in Killarney donated a tau cross carved especially for use in the procession and the 17th Century Meelick Chalice, brought from Meelick when the last of the friars departed in the 1850s, was on loan from the National Museum.

After Mass the Papal Nuncio planted a yew tree on the lawn beside the church to commemorate the occasion and the large congregation enjoyed refreshments under specially constructed pavilions on the grounds of the church.