Celebrations planned to mark centenary of Blackrock Church in Louth

A weekend Festival of Flowers featuring the work of renowned Dundalk landscape and garden designer Paul Martin and a special Mass celebrated by Archbishop Eamon Martin will form the centrepiece of the celebrations to mark the Centenary of Saint Oliver Plunkett Church in Blackrock at the end of this month.

They will take place over the weekend of August 30 to September 1 coinciding with the solemn consecration of the church on Sunday, August 31, a 100 years ago, which by a extraordinary coincidence was five years exactly to the date when the foundation stone of the building was laid in 1919.

The Festival and Mass are the kernel of a weekend programme that also will include the celebration of a special Mass at the shrine in the parish dedicated to Saint Oliver at Ballybarrack on the Ardee Road on Thursday , August 29 at 7pm.

A short talk on the life of the Saint will be given on the occasion by local historian Noel Sharkey.

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The next day (August 30) the Festival of Flowers which will take place in Saint Oliver’s Church will officially begin with an Ecumenical Prayer Service in the Church at 2pm.

Very Rev Canon Benedict Fee will impart a homily on the spiritual impact of Saint Oliver on the Irish Church.

The Festival of Flowers and Mass of Thanksgiving by Archbishop Eamon Martin on the Saturday, August 31 in the church will be the culmination of the celebrations, the plans and preparations for which are being overseen by a Centenary Group in conjunction with the Parish Pastoral Council, a task that is ongoing all this year and initiated even further back.

The parish is very fortunate and privileged to have obtained a designer of the stature of Paul Martin to put on the Festival of Flowers, the themes for which have been decided, and florists engaged.

It will be open to the public from the Friday to the Sunday from 2pm to 6pm daily and is already generating a lot of interest over a wide area.

An information pamphlet has been produced to enhance viewers’ enjoyment of the festival

A public celebration will follow the Centenary Mass with a marquee hired and to be erected in the grounds of the church to host a reception for parishioners and invited guests.

A number of significant projects have been undertaken in conjunction with the celebrations, notably the funding of the construction of a new church in Brazil in the parish of Soa Felix do Xingu in the Amazon and the renovation of Our Lady’s grotto in front of the church. The combined cost of the two projects is projected to come to €25,000.

To raise the funding the parish finance management committee are inviting parishioners and friends to sponsor a paving at the cost of €25 each.

Other integral features of the celebrations was the research, compilation and publication of book covering the 100 year history of the church, together with the design and creation of a Centenary flag and souvenir coin.

The flag has been flying outside the two churches in the parish since June when a ceremonial flag raising ceremony was held in the grounds of Oliver Plunkett Church to signal the start of the celebrations.

The ceremony was conducted by pupils of Blackrock School which is named after Saint Oliver Plunkett and this year is the 125th anniversary of the opening of the school.