OLD CHURCH DEMOLISHED IN ATHY
LEINSTER LEADER 18 AUGUST 1973
Old Church is demolished Athy
A SILENT BELFRY stands high against the evening sun in the grounds of St. Dominic’s, Athy. Beside it is a heap of rubble – all that remains of the old St. Dominic’s Church. Nearby is the beautiful church, whose parabolic style of architecture has attracted thousands of people from throughout the world, some to admire, others to criticise, but all to acclaim an edifice worthy of international attention.
The demolition of the old church, necessitated by its dangerous condition, brought sadness to the older generations who had worshipped within its walls. Even though it had ceased for several years to be used as a church, its very presence reminded many of long years of association with and reverence for the Dominican Fathers who had ministered in it. “Sure it’s like losing a member of my family,” remarked an elderly lady last week, as she dismally eyed the bricks and mortar that remained on the site. She added, “But then it had to go, just as we all must and I am very grateful that I was able to pray there for so many years.”
The Dominican Order has been intimately associated with Athy since the thirteenth century, when its monastery was established there on the east bank of the Barrow. In August 1539, the Black Friary was suppressed, but early in the seventeenth century the Dominican Fathers returned to the town to set up a small chapel in Leinster St. in the building that now belongs to Athy and District Committee for the Care of the Elderly. Very Rev. H. Pollock O.P., Prior, who gave the town its new Dominican Church, recalled at a Mass there last week the association the Order had with Athy for 700 years, and expressed the heartfelt thanks of the Dominican Fathers to the people of the district for their loyalty and devotion to the Dominican Order. The demolished old church, in juxtaposition to the modern one, he said, symbolised the history of the Dominican Fathers in Athy. The ruins could be said to represent their periods of hardships and tribulations; the new church their re-emergence to minister among their beloved people of Athy.
