Yesterday.

Mullahoran, County Cavan

Fr PJ Hughes (top), parish priest of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, says Mass.

A Garda checkpoint stopped mass goers as they arrived at the church.

Fr Hughes said:

“A guard told me that I was putting the lives of elderly people at risk. It’s a sad day that three Garda cars are circling around this church. Have they nothing else to do? God help us.

“It is our faith that brings us here and they told me that I wasn’t reading the statistics and didn’t know what was going on. I told them I did not accept the negative message being poured out by RTÉ. It’s not fair.

“This is sectarianism. This is against our faith. It’s a sectarian act against our Catholic Church encouraged by the Government who don’t believe in God anymore.”

Meanwhile…

Outside Our Lady of Lourdes church yesterday morning

Via Westmeath Independent:

The vast majority of the persons who attended the Sunday Mass in Mullahoran this morning travelled from outside the county and the designated 5km.

Its understood that several attendees travelled from as far afield as Leitrim and Roscommon to be there.

A number of on the spot fines were issued to those in breach of current health regulations.

In a statement, An Garda Siochana confirmed that they were “aware” of a religious service taking place where they “engaged with those present”.

Garda statement after checkpoint outside local priest’s church (Westmeath Independent)

Gardaí set checkpoints near church as priest says Mass in breach of Covid rules (Irish Times)

Top pic: Lorraine Teevan

Meanwhile…

Ah now.

Meanwhile…

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45 thoughts on “Go In Peace

  1. John

    Matthew 6:5 (King James)
    And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites
    are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and
    in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men
    Verily I say unto you, They have their reward

    1. freewheeling

      Matthew 10:3

      Every one therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword.

          1. Papi

            And lo, from the mouth of the wisest did come
            “Zip up your Mickey”
            And Twink was counted among the holiest of holies. And we did rejoice.

      1. Janet, chatty mammy

        don’t eat in scorching sun for a while and then talk to hallucinations, it will all fall into plave

  2. goldenbrown

    aha!

    so THAT’s why (outa nowhere, defo firsttime I’ve seen it happen over the past year) yesterday morning Garda Patrol placed a checkpoint sitting right outside 2x separate churches in my locale

    lol on top of everything else…this is Chris Morris territory

  3. Broadbag

    ”God help us” indeed, sure if there was a God would he not be stopping the auld Covid or is he punishing us for the gay marriage and the abortion and the Tuam babies (oh wait, that was His lot that did that one) erm…may the fairies protect us from the darkness and grant us everlasting life in Tir na nOg.

    1. Donald McCarthy

      Faeries indeed! Eny fule kno that it’s the leprechauns who rule, presided over by his majestic self (peace be upon him) Jimmy The Psychotic Leprechaun who farms pink unicorns for his own deviant pleasure beyond the moons of Uranus.Soon as we grow in strength and write his gospels and burn those who disbelieve and teach those who are young in special schools dedicated to Jimmy the Man, you will all kneel in holy terror before us. Services held every Tuesday in the haybarn and do please bring your own guitar and chequebook.

    2. Sam

      Surely even if you are not religious you understand the idea that god is not there to be a puppet master . The world goes on , we deal with it and get judged how we dealt with it at the end.

  4. Donald McCarthy

    Should you believe in an omnipotent, omniscient God and the reality of an after-life, you would be a traitor to your faith were you NOT to attend mass. The idea that we, as puny humans, should pit ourselves against the power and majesty of God and rely on science and medicine and logic is simply heretical. God knows what he is doing. Leave him to it.

    1. K. Cavan

      Do you genuinely believe that we are being led by science, medicine & logic? Fair play to you, now that is Real Faith. I admire you. No, really.

  5. H

    Isaiah 26:20

    Come, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by.

    1. Papi

      And Netflix did ask “are thou still watching?”
      And the reply shook the very heavens. Yes. We are.

  6. ReproBertie

    “I told them I did not accept the negative message being poured out by RTÉ. It’s not fair.” says man who preaches that any who don’t accept his organisation’s interpretations of a book will spend eternity burning in agony.

  7. MoRhustyDilis

    Once again, regardless of who said it, he hit the nail on the head re RTE propaganda and that The Gardaí must have little else to be doing. Is there zero crime at present?
    Easy targets for the enforcers.
    Let each to their own and each take responsibility for their actions.

    1. Daisy Chainsaw

      But antimaskers and lockdown breakers don’t take responsibility for their actions and that’s why the Gardai are wasting their time herding the sheep away from places they’re not supposed to be.

      1. Donald McCarthy

        During the black-out in the Blitz, my grandfather, also a belligerent, drunken contrarian, simply refused to extinguish the Tilley lamp which he had traditionally kept burning in his window. There was much tut-tutting among his neighbours but they stopped when the Luftwaffe, drawn to the light like dangerous moths, arrived.

      2. Boj

        Sounds like antimaskers and lockdown breakers are living rent free in your head…tee hee.
        Is that how it works.
        Who are ‘the sheep’ in this instance….oh its all so twirly wurly…haha

        1. Daisy Chainsaw

          They squat there on the odd occasion, but a good spray of disinfectant gets rid of the plague lovers.

          And the sheep in this instance? “God’s” flock, of course.

      3. K. Cavan

        They’re Uppity Sheep, why can’t they just do what they’re told by RTE, like the Obedient Sheep, eh? RTE is up to it’s oxters in scientists. A while back they announced on the News that N. Korea had tested a Nuclear Missile, so I’m sure they couldn’t be mistaken about a Deadly Virus. No chance.

    2. George

      We let each to there own in December but the thing about an infectious disease is it doesn’t confine itself to a single person. That’s the whole point.

  8. Verbatim

    Hahahahahahaha – “Do you believe in Covid”???
    Poor Garda it’s a hard life, standing in danger by the side of the road with vehicles flying by trying to fit into some kind of a role…and such an intimate moment being filmed and flung onto SM.

  9. John Smith

    The piece quoted appears to suggest that those who were issued with fine notices were those more than 5km from their home. The ‘designated 5km’ relates only to exercise.

    If fines were being imposed purely on the grounds of distance travelled then the guards do not know the law. The legislation says that you may not leave your place of residence (your home, in most cases) without a ‘reasonable excuse’. If you have a reasonable excuse, then there is no distance limitation, UNLESS your reasonable excuse is exercise, in which case there is a 5km limit.

    If attending mass is a reasonable excuse, then everyone who goes there is acting within the law and no-one should have been fined. If it is not a reasonable excuse then everyone attending is breaking the law, including the local people. Were all those present fined? The phrase ‘those in breach of current health regulations’ suggests that this was not the case.

    The priest is not, by my understanding, in breach of any regulations in saying mass – this he would be doing daily as part of his religious duties. The question would be whether he is ‘organising an event’ by allowing others to be present.

    The whole situation seems to need to be thought through more fully and, to my mind, the fines notices should be revoked and no more issued, unless and until there is a definite statement issued regarding the legal issues. This would apply to any religious service, of course, not just Catholic ones.

  10. ian-oG

    Is there a point to this post?

    Idiot ignores health advice to put parishioners at risk.

    There’s your headline.

        1. ian-oG

          Looks like a stiff breeze would blow him over.

          Also probably the closest a limp looking lad will get to being stiff.

  11. Locked and Down

    High rooved churches, with good ventilation, masks and social distancing. This seems fine to me.

    They’re preparing people for endemic covid19. The pandemic phase will be over soon.

    1. ian-oG

      Priest has stated his disbelief in what is actually going on so while I’d actually be OK with churches opening in a safe fashion, this guy doesn’t seem to ‘know what is going on’, his words, so maybe he wouldn’t be the best person to be arranging safety measures for his parishioners.

      1. Locked and Down

        For me this really sets out a me and then situation. If these morons continue to disrupt my life I’ll have to do something.

  12. Nigel

    You’d call that Marcus De Brun tweet mendacious if it weren’t for the tweet he’s wildly misreading being right there under it.

    1. V aka Frilly Keane

      + V

      a lot of that ongoing on here as well tbh

      the deniers are now out-faking the fake news they squealed on and about for years
      I blame the latest twist in the Sidney Powell adventures meself

    2. ian-oG

      Showing the influence his right wing buddies are having on him.

      How can any take him seriously when he is that blatant in his BS?

  13. V aka Frilly Keane

    this is GUBU level stuff lads

    It’s a sad day that three Garda cars are circling around this church.

    the sad part is that it didn’t happen decades ago

    AGS Squad cars circling Catholic Church properties should be a normal policing duty
    just like directing traffic
    Checkpoints etc

  14. K. Cavan

    They’re Uppity Sheep, why can’t they just do what they’re told by RTE, like the Obedient Sheep, eh? RTE is up to it’s oxters in scientists. A while back they announced on the News that N. Korea had tested a Nuclear Missile, so I’m sure they couldn’t be mistaken about a Deadly Virus. No chance.

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