Fundraiser to rebuild Derrybeg church soars past €100,000

A fundraising drive to help rebuild St Mary’s Church in Derrybeg has soared past €100,000 in less than three days.

The Church was gutted by a fire in the early hours of Easter Monday.

The local community has rallied around following the devastating scenes after the blaze took hold of the iconic building.

An online GoFundMe page has collected over €85,000 and you can donate by clicking here.

Additional funds have streamed in and the total amount has now exceeded €100,000.

Parishioner Mary Coyle of Coiste Forbartha Dhobair, who is part of a local committee that has helped to organise the fundraising drive, says that they are “overwhelmed” by the generosity.

“We are a strong people, very resilient,” she told the Donegal Democrat earlier this week. “It is very important to stay together as parishioners and we will get through this. The Church is so central to everyone in Gaoth Dobhair and it is lovely to see how everyone is working shoulder-to-shoulder to ensure that St Mary’s is rebuilt.”

This Saturday night at 8pm, a marquee at Teach Phaidí Óig in Crolly will host Oíche Tairbhí, featuring Daniel O’Donnell, Moya Brennan and Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, as well as a host of local artists with all donations going directly toward the restoration of the church.

Hope and healing, they say, will feature strongly on the night.  “Every voice, every hand, every note of music brings us closer to seeing our chapel rise once again,” the organisers say.

Read next: Derrybeg Church fire: 'It was just frightful, the intensity of the flames'

“This chapel gave us so much. Now it’s our turn to give back,” the organisers said in a heartfelt appeal.