DIT chaplaincy celebrates Luas opening
Celebrating the opening of the new Luas line at the Grangegorman campus of Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), the Pastoral Care and Chaplaincy Service at DIT are offering “a vibrant week of events” from December 11-14 in St Laurence’s Church.
Admission to all events is free and begins on Monday 11 at 2.30pm with historian Joan Kavanagh from Wicklow Gaol who will give a presentation based on the book Van Diemen’s Women: A History of Transportation to Tasmania. In the talk the link with deportation of women and their children from Grangegorman to Tasmania will be given particular consideration.
On Tuesday at 1pm there will be a mindfulness session, followed by a lecture from Emer Dennehy from Transport Infrastructure Ireland and Teresa Bolger from Rubicon Heritage Ltd at 2.30pm who will illustrate how the cholera epidemic of 1832 led to the establishment of the Dublin Cholera Hospital at Grangegorman.
On Wednesday at 2.30pm Emmet Gill from Na Píobairí Uilleann (The Uillean Piper’s Club), who have a close association with the area around the campus, will give an overview of the uillean pipes, talk about the club’s role in reviving the instrument and will play some traditional Irish tunes.
Finally at 4.30pm on Thursday the DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama will help celebrate the Christmas season with a performance of Christmas carols.
Columban missionary witnesses Papal visit to Myanmar
Just days after the Columban missionaries at Dalgan Park, Navan celebrated the beginning of the centenary of their foundation, Fr Eamon Sheridan witnessed at first hand the hope and joy of Pope Francis’s visit to Myanmar.
A native of Drogheda, Fr Sheridan is working in Myanmar where he works at a centre for alcohol and drug rehabilitation.
Fr Sheridan said the Pope’s visit was a wonderful boost to the small Church community in the country. “By coming here, the Pope certainly lived up to his call for the Church to go to the periphery,” he said.
“I didn’t go to the capital city to see the Pope. I am living now in a Catholic run rehab centre in the North East of Myanmar,” Fr Sheridan explained. “The Columbans worked in this area from 1936 until 1978 when they all had to leave. There are 40 young men here who are trying to recover from alcohol and drug addiction. The disease of addiction is an epidemic here. Approximately 50% of drug users are HIV positive. In response the Church has set up this centre. It is a very basic place; there are no frills, finances are a constant problem. But God has supplied and the centre offers hope to people who previously were hopeless that they could ever get recovery.”
“As they were unable to go to Yangon, I decided to stay with them and watch the Pope’s visit on TV with them” Fr Sheridan said. He described the excitement as they gathered around the TV to watch the Papal Mass celebrated in Yangon.
