Photo: Courtesy of Colm Lenaghan. A day of celebration in Downpatrick turned to shock on Sunday, June 28, when a fire broke out at the former Convent of Mercy beside St Patrick’s Church just hours after Fr Thomas Hampton was ordained to the priesthood there.
Fr Eugene O’Neill PP said Fr Thomas Hampton’s ordination on Sunday afternoon had been “a wonderful festive day” and a “joyous, joyous occasion”, with a huge turnout and almost 100 parish volunteers helping with stewarding, hospitality and preparations.
However, firefighters were called to the former convent building beside the church at around 7pm. The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service said the blaze, which involved 70 firefighters at its height, is being treated as deliberate ignition.
Fr O’Neill said the fire was “extensive” and “powerful”, adding that the old convent building had been “completely destroyed” and was now in a dangerous condition. “There was a very real danger. The fire was spreading,” he said, adding that a sacristy of St Patrick’s Church suffered some damage.
He said the parish owed “an enormous debt of gratitude” to the Fire Service for quenching the fire and preventing it spreading to the church “in which the ordination had taken place”.
The former Convent of Mercy was opened around 155 years ago and had been closely associated with Catholic life in Downpatrick. Fr O’Neill said the Mercy Sisters had played an “immense” role locally through education, care of the sick and pastoral work.
“These were incredibly highly trained, intelligent, committed, energetic women who just swept through Ireland and have left positive influences for good,” he said.
Ciaran Fitzpatrick, who owns the former convent site and developed its chapel into Trinity Columbarium, said the chapel had narrowly survived the blaze “by the grace of God” and through the “heroic” work of firefighters.
Fr O’Neill said Fr Hampton’s ordination was a sign of hope for the diocese, describing it as “a tonic for all of us and a challenge to complacency”.
He added that he saw the ordination as an early beginning to preparations for 2032, the 1,600th anniversary of St Patrick’s return to Ireland as a missionary bishop.
Newly ordained Fr Thomas Hampton gave Bishop Alan McGuckian his first blessing. Fr Hampton, a native of Saul & Ballee Parish, was ordained for the Diocese of Down and Connor on June 28 in St Patrick’s Church, Downpatrick. Photo: Fr Brian Watters.