Does Belleek Church Close or Not?. A very important and eventful meeting took place in St Laurence O’Tooles Primary School on Thursday night past. In the excess of 100 plus attended this meeting, to discuss the forthcoming news that the 4 Churches of the Loughgilly Parish were to be closed down, to accommodate one Church building that would cover the whole of the Parish. This is something that Belleek people can’t accept, and they came out in their numbers on Thursday night to voice their opinion. To close down Belleek chapel, which will celebrate 164 years this year, is sacrilege, and is something that will not go down well with those that its involves, notably our parishioners. At the minute, three options have been put forward to accommodate what is required due to the lack of Priests in the parish, which incidentally is a big problem. [1] Repair but not upgrade all four churches [2] To repair and Upgrade each church to a good standard, however neither church would be increased [3] Build a new Church in Whitecross, which would include an adoration chapel, crying room, meeting room. By all account the 3rd option would seem to be cheaper one, or alleged to be, but are the Belleek people willing to lose their identity, lose their soul. To close Belleek chapel down, would mean the loss of many things, and it would have a snowball effect; soon we would then lose our school, which had only been built recently. St Laurence O’Tooles, is stamped on most things around Belleek, Chapel, School and football club, and is in many ways out patron saint, would be no more. Belleek is an up and coming village, since I and many of us of the same age bracket have been around, we have and are very proud of our village, and everything about, we have watched it grow in size, and in numbers, you could nearly say it is now a City. We remember when Belleek consisted of the main street, just a few houses, and Rockview Crescent [otherwise known as Ruction Row] remove our Church and there will be ructions, you can be sure of that. In those early days you could name everyone’s house, would have been in them, and would have known everyone by their name, and every dog on the street, it was a great place to live in, always friendly, and everyone got on well together. Now Belleek has estates all through it, Frances Hughes [Somerville] Park, Carrick Dua, Carrick Dua heights, Park Wall View, Griffith Close, An Cairal Ard and others floating around. Are we going to ask the elderly and those who like to visit their Church in the morning and sometimes in the evening, that they have nowhere to go, and have to travel half the country to worship their God. Are we just going rip out the heart of our community and expect them to travel miles away to pray. Lets just think about that. Belleek is a small community on its own, and it is growing, and if the residents find that they have no Church, and later no School to hang onto, and that is definitely the next step, it will just stagnate. The building of one Church in the Parish and where it will built, will no doubt suit some, and those behind that project can see what they want, and they have advised that everyone should follow their avenue, so to speak, they “don’t want others to chose going a different pathway”. Belleek have just recently developed a 2nd graveyard, mostly through voluntary labour, it’s a thriving community, with so much within in it. School, Church, business premises, football club, leisure green, and it definitely doesn’t want to lose it place of solace, its place of worship. Belleek will definitely not want to give up its Church up that easily, as if Belleek people ever give anything up easily. Let hope that the right answers will be found, and we shall leave the destination of the Belleek St Laurence O’Tooles church in the hands of our patron Saint and God.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 02:39:47 +0000
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