10th anniversary of Longford Cathedral reopening

On Christmas Eve in 2009, the people of Longford were left in shock after the heartbreaking fire that took place in St Mel’s Cathedral.

The destructive fire left the beloved and sacred site a shell of its former self and people across the county heartbroken.

In 2014 the cathedral reopened after 5 years of incredible work from all involved. Now the cathedral has become a destination spot for many tourists in Longford.

Fr James MacKiernan is a priest and Administrator in St Mel’s Cathedral. While he’s only been working in the Cathedral for seven years he is from Longford Town and recalls the tragic day.

“It was an incredibly traumatic day for everyone,” he remembered.

“To think a Cathedral of its magnitude could be burned, and destroyed, so completely destroyed in a fire it was just incredible.

“It was incredibly emotional for everybody, the residents of Longford and all others who were anyway familiar with the cathedral at all it was a hugely emotional day for them.

“Even for days after I suppose it was like a bereavement, almost, for people,” explained Fr James.

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It wasn’t long before people got to work to rebuild the beloved monument.

“The spirits rose then and people felt that they were going to rebuild so that raised people's spirits.

“And people weren't 100% in agreement with rebuilding, some people thought maybe it shouldn’t be rebuilt, maybe it should be a monument for the people and those who built it.

“Others thought that it was essential that it be rebuilt and that decision was taken to rebuild it then.”

Five years later the Cathedral reopened, and in quite the full circle moment, it reopened on Christmas Day.

This Christmas will be the 10th anniversary of the reopening of St Mel’s.

While Fr James wasn’t involved in the renovations, he told the Longford Leader what it was like to follow the upgrades and see them for the first time.

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“The actual build itself once it got started and planned only took three years.

“Once the process started it was tremendous work, the skills of the people involved to restore and bring back lots of the original features, it’s phenomenal.

“It’s such an incredible thing that those gifts and those talents were able to do that, and that’s why we were able to restore it to its former glory.

“It’s a very modern building, with all the modern features and all that, but it’s a tremendous building, arches and angles and statues and altars and all were able to be restored,” he described.

Naturally, emotions were high in the community on December 25, 2014, as people filed in and saw the final results of the long-awaited renovations.

“The emotions were very high, it’s a bit like Notre Dame, the first pictures of the redevelopment of Notre Dame have been released.

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“I suppose the good thing about the cathedral here is that we were able to keep people very well informed, they had open days two or three times throughout the whole process so people could see what was going on.”

Since it’s reopening there have been thousands of people from across the world who have come to Longford to see St Mel’s Cathedral.

For visitors from Germany, California and San Francisco, the cathedral is a sightseeing destination.

“It’s certainly reawakened the conscience of the people again to come and visit and to see the work that had been done.

“Many thousands have come over the years to visit and be impressed by it,” concluded Fr James.