Notices

On 9th June 2018 Bishop Fintan Monahan announced a number of structural changes in the Diocese of Killaloe and a number of new clerical appointments.Our parish is among the several that will experience great change over the coming months.Fr David Carroll, a native of neighbouring O’Callaghan’s Mills, will be our new co-Parish Priest and will reside in the parish house in Bodyke. He will work with Fr Joe McMahon and Fr Fergal O’Neill and with semi-retired priests Fr James O’Brien, Fr John Jones and Fr JJ Rogers throughout what will be known as Pastoral Area 9  which comprises Bodyke & Tuamgraney, Feakle/Kilclaran, Flagmount/Killanena, Mountshannon/Whitegate, Ogonnelloe and Scariff/ Clonusker.

Retired Spiritan missionary priest Fr Jackie Sharpe CSSp has been spending his summer months in the parish house in Bodyke for a number of years and this year he arrived from Africa in mid-April, ahead of the swallows. He settled down to helping out in parishes of the East Clare Cluster straight away and during his first weekend masses he was pleased to inform the congregations that a native Gambian, well known to him, was ordained in February as the new bishop of his diocese, Banjul. Fr Jackie sees this as a reward for the tireless work, down through the years, of missionary priests who may occasionally have seen their efforts as being fruitless. He sees it too as another example of the positive changes taking place in our church at this time and he mentioned in the same breath the fact that the current Papal Nuncio in Ireland is another African, Archbishop Jude Okolo from Nigeria.

On Thursday 12th April 2018 Bishop Fintan Monahan came to Bodyke Church to confirm children from our parish and from Ogonnelloe Parish. On a fine dry day the extended families of all the candidates gathered for a wonderful ceremony in which Bishop Fintan was assisted by Fr Donagh and by Fr Richard Flanagan PP Ballyvaughan. Darragh Hayes was the sole representative of Bodyke N.S. while the candidates from Tuamgraney N.S. were  Cormac Keane, Rebecca McKenna, Michael O’Brien, Bryan Quigley and Ross Tubridy.

We were blessed with dry weather as we gathered at Two Mile Gate for Dawn Mass  on Easter Sunday morning guided by the light of a full moon. People started arriving from about 5.30am , having travelled from  the East Clare parishes of Bodyke & Tuamgraney,  Ogonnelloe,  Scariff,  Tulla, Mountshannon and Feakle. The assembly also included visitors to the area.

Earlier this year our Parish Pastoral Council arranged for a donation of €500 to be sent to Missionvale on behalf of all of our parishioners. This was good but it was minuscule in comparison with the contribution made by Eddie & Sheila Mulvihill from our parish and by all the other volunteers from neighbouring parishes who accompanied Fr Donagh to South Africa to help Sr Ethel Normoyle and the Missionvale  care workers for ten days in late January/early February. Eddie Mulvihill had previously accompanied Fr Donagh on two volunteer missions but it was Sheila’s first time there and for this reason she was asked for her thoughts and impressions.