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Killaloe – 1929

Evening Post Vol CVIII Issue 108 2nd November 1929 (abridged)

St Lua's church, Killaloe Uploaded by Chris55  Wikimedia Commons
St Lua’s church, Killaloe
Uploaded by Chris55
Wikimedia Commons

AN ISLAND GOES.

Friar’s Island, Killaloe, where eight centuries ago the pious monks of St. Lua’s Oratory preached Christianity to the Irish, will soon be a memory that has sunk beneath many waters. The waters are those of the Shannon, which will rise to cover it when the reservoirs for the new power scheme for distributing electricity about the countryside are filled.

Ireland could not see the old place go without a look, without a sigh, and without a prayer, so on a Saturday in July many people from Tipperary, Limerick, and County Clare gathered there to bid the island farewell and hear the priests celebrate Mass there for the last time. Mass had not been said there since the Oratory fell to ruin all those centuries ago. The monks have gone, the voices which were heard at Matins or at Vespers are for ever silent, and now the island itself has followed them to rest.

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