Limerick churches run out of blessed ashes as ‘demand exceeds supply’ this Ash Wednesday

A LIMERICK priest joked that he felt like a drug dealer packaging blessed ashes into little sachets for his parishioners this Ash Wednesday.

But despite his best efforts to ensure everyone got enough, there was no repeat of the miracle of the loaves and fishes for Fr Chris O’Donnell with three local churches running out of ashes by lunchtime this Wednesday.

“I know at the moment all the ashes in Kilmallock are gone as well as Ballingaddy and Effin. I have to check Garrienderk, Bulgaden and Martinstown to see if any are left over,” said Fr Chris.

Normally, parishioners would attend Mass in person on Ash Wednesday and receive the sign of the cross from priests with the ashes on their forehead, but this year, due to Covid-19, the blessed ashes were placed in sachets and left in local churches to be picked up by parishioners.

“The demand is up,” Fr Chris pointed out. “We put the ashes in sachets with a little note and instructions and people collected the sachets in the church. Even though we had lots of ashes put out, they went very quickly. It’s a case of demand exceeding supply,” he added.

“Myself and the person helping, we knew there would be demand so we were putting a spoonful into a little bag so literally the sacristy was covered with bags of ashes last night. I’d say there could have been up to 180 bags or more. We were just surrounded by them.”

The case of the ashes shortage in County Limerick even made the national airwaves this Wednesday morning with Fr Chris chatting about the situation to Dermot and Dave on Today FM.

“They asked me on Dermot and Dave if we were weighing the ashes - as if we were charging for it by the gramme but that was not the case,” smiled Fr Chris. “I said we are not charging but we did feel a bit like drug dealers,” he joked.

The ashes were created from the palm branches which were used on Palm Sunday last year and were dried and burned.

“They got blessed at Mass this morning. The parishioners were getting dry ashes - that way you could get more to people so they just needed to add water at home. I’d say people will be pottering in for the day looking for them but, sadly, there are not enough ashes. I needed to burn down a few more things I think to create enough ashes,” he smiled.

“Once I am finished with this funeral I'm attending I will do a sweep of the other churches to see if there are any left and if there are, I might try and get some more back to Kilmallock,” said the busy priest.