St Patrick's Shrine re-dedicated.
St Patrick’s Well, which was originally built with funds raised by the Samaritan Society in 1938, had fallen into serious disrepair. Kildare County Council intimated that they would be prepared to become involved in a joint renovation venture and the local community took up the torch. KCC got in touch with Joe Heavey on the 14th of June 2002 via local Councillor John O'Neill. Joe brought it to the Clongorey Community Association and a public private partnership emerged to re-construct the Shrine. The condition of the shrine continued to deteriorate over the next few months leading to a partial collapse of the structure, which then began a danger to the public. Kildare County Council dismantled the structure on the 16th of December 2002. The process of raising funds for the reconstruction of the shrine then began in earnest.
Funds were secured from KELT Leader 2 Program, Father Jackie O'Connell and Caragh Parish also contributed. The other major sponsors were NEWBRIDGE CREDIT UNION and Kildare County Council. This is not the first time that the Credit Union have helped our project funding and a special word of thanks is due to them for their continuing support of our community efforts.
Barrettstown is a very special place to so many of us in the locality and the association were simply overwhelmed by the generosity of so many people, like local, builders, tradesmen and farmers towards the project which involved the complete refurbishment of the grotto and the cleaning out of the well. It was cleaned out with shovels and in digging it out we unearthed over 200lbs. of old coin, which had been deposited in the well over the years. The local youth club undertook the task of cleaning the coins and together with student from St. Conleths School in Newbridge the coins were sorted. On 1st September 2004, Clongorey Community Association donated €1,000, the value of the coin retrieved from the well, to the newly formed charity Almas. KCC have generously undertaken to maintain the grotto on an ongoing basis.
On St. Patrick’s morning, there was a huge attendance from all over Caragh Parish and beyond when Bishop Jim Moriarity blessed and rededicated St. Patrick’s Well at Barrettstown Cemetery. In a lovely ecumenical ceremony, local PP Fr. Jackie O’Connell and Rev. Dr. John Marsden from Newbridge assisted Bishop Moriarity.
The clergy as well local secondary school student Sara Conlon read suitable prayers, with Dr. Marsden giving a very interesting talk. Barrettstown cemetery is in a lovely sylvan Liffeyside setting, with the beautiful music of Siobhán Keogh and friend’s really adding a very special magic to the occasion. Among the other speakers were Mr. Justin Larking of KELT who had helped out financially with a project, a joint venture between Kildare County Council and Clongorey Community Development Association.
This was followed with a prize giving presentation in the community centre to winners of the community association sponsored local schools art competition. Our sincere thanks to Willie Finnie and Joe Heavey for organising this and you can see more images of the occasion in the Photo Gallery section of our website.
The winners of the Art Competition were as follows:
Category One- Senior and Junior Infants
Category Two – First and Second Class
Category Three- Third and Fourth Class
Category Four- 5th and 6th Class
Special Group Category
Patrician Primary School Newbridge
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Article by David O'Brien, Sepember 2004.
St Patrick’s Well, which was originally built with funds raised by the Samaritan Society in 1938, had fallen into serious disrepair. Kildare County Council intimated that they would be prepared to become involved in a joint renovation venture and the local community took up the torch. KCC got in touch with Joe Heavey on the 14th of June 2002 via local Councillor John O'Neill. Joe brought it to the Clongorey Community Association and a public private partnership emerged to re-construct the Shrine. The condition of the shrine continued to deteriorate over the next few months leading to a partial collapse of the structure, which then began a danger to the public. Kildare County Council dismantled the structure on the 16th of December 2002. The process of raising funds for the reconstruction of the shrine then began in earnest. Funds were secured from KELT Leader 2 Program, Father Jackie O'Connell and Caragh Parish also contributed. The other major sponsors were NEWBRIDGE CREDIT UNION and Kildare County Council. This is not the first time that the Credit Union have helped our project funding and a special word of thanks is due to them for their continuing support of our community efforts.
Barrettstown is a very special place to so many of us in the locality and the association were simply overwhelmed by the generosity of so many people, like local, builders, tradesmen and farmers towards the project which involved the complete refurbishment of the grotto and the cleaning out of the well. It was cleaned out with shovels and in digging it out we unearthed over 200lbs. of old coin, which had been deposited in the well over the years. The local youth club undertook the task of cleaning the coins and together with student from St. Conleths School in Newbridge the coins were sorted. On 1st September 2004, Clongorey Community Association donated €1,000, the value of the coin retrieved from the well, to the newly formed charity Almas. KCC have generously undertaken to maintain the grotto on an ongoing basis.
On St. Patrick’s morning, there was a huge attendance from all over Caragh Parish and beyond when Bishop Jim Moriarity blessed and rededicated St. Patrick’s Well at Barrettstown Cemetery. In a lovely ecumenical ceremony, local PP Fr. Jackie O’Connell and Rev. Dr. John Marsden from Newbridge assisted Bishop Moriarity. The clergy as well local secondary school student Sara Conlon read suitable prayers, with Dr. Marsden giving a very interesting talk. Barrettstown cemetery is in a lovely sylvan Liffeyside setting, with the beautiful music of Siobhán Keogh and friend’s really adding a very special magic to the occasion. Among the other speakers were Mr. Justin Larking of KELT who had helped out financially with a project, a joint venture between Kildare County Council and Clongorey Community Development Association.
This was followed with a prize giving presentation in the community centre to winners of the community association sponsored local schools art competition. Our sincere thanks to Willie Finnie and Joe Heavey for organising this and you can see more images of the occasion in the Photo Gallery section of our website.
The winners of the Art Competition were as follows:
Category One- Senior and Junior Infants
| 1st | Robyn O’Reilly | Mercy Convent Naas |
| 2nd | Caoimhe Battault | Caragh National School |
| 3rd | Emma Quine | Scoil and Linbh Iosa |
Category Two – First and Second Class
| 1st | Holly O’Reilly | Mercy Convent Naas |
| 2nd | Niamh O’Rourke | Caragh National School |
| 3rd | Emma Finnegan | Bunscoil Gaelscoil, Cill Dara |
Category Three- Third and Fourth Class
| 1st | Barry Leavy | Caragh National School |
| 2nd | Connor Maguire | Allen National School |
| 3rd | Jack Tinsley | Scoil Muire, Ballymany |
Category Four- 5th and 6th Class
| 1st | Shannyn Brogan | Scoil Muire, Newbridge |
| 2nd | Ronan O’ Reilly | St. Corban’s Primary School, Naas |
| 3rd | James Lynch | Allen National School |
Special Group Category
Patrician Primary School Newbridge
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Article by David O'Brien, Sepember 2004.
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