Sign of the times. Details:
One of the largest Catholic churches in Dublin is to be demolished to make way for a much smaller building accommodating 350 worshippers instead of 3,500.
The scaled-back building on the site of the Church of the Annunciation in Finglas West on the city’s north side will also allow social housing to be built alongside it.
The current church opened in 1967 when John Charles McQuaid was archbishop of Dublin and there was a vogue for building very large churches.
However, the fall-off in regular Mass attendances in recent years have left such churches underused and parishes have also struggled with high maintenance and running costs.
And today we celebrate...