MARKING 150 YEARS IN KILLARNEY
BISHOP BROWNE JOINS FRIARS TO CELEBRATE MILESTONE
“IT’S a celebration of 150 years of support by the people of Killarney,” is how Fr Liam McCarthy described the momentous celebrations last Friday marking the Franciscan Order’s anniversary of the opening of the church on Martyrs’ Hill in 1867.
Bishop Ray Browne also visited the Friary where he blessed the celebrations which mark a significant ecclesiastical landmark in Kerry.
The Franciscans have deep roots in the locality which extend back to the 1440s. Having been dispersed in the 1600s, the friars took to living in isolated locations in the surrounding mountains until efforts to establish the friars into more organised communities was eventually rekindled in Belgium in the 1800s.
From here, a friar named Fr Archangelus Vendricks was to accompany friars to Ireland in 1858 and after a spell in Mangerton, College Street and in New Street, the people of Killarney made the current site available for the construction of the present church on Martyrs’ Hill rounding off a remarkable sequence of events that ensured the Franciscans will forever be a part of life in Killarney.
The Mayor of Killarney Cllr Nail Kelleher spoke at the ceremony of the proud tradition and contribution made by the Franciscans to Killarney.
Fr Liam added: “It really was a special day; a day that belonged to the people of the town. Of course in later years the friars establishment a novitiate in Killarney from where many young men travelled all over the world. The Order’s success owes a lot to the support of Killarney and I also wish to thank Mayor Niall Kelleher for his lovely speech and tribute to the Franciscans.”