Old Jesuit Church bought by priests

Builderfromhell

A little background info. on the group who are buying the abandoned church at eh crescent;

North American Superior abuse case

http://www.eurekaencyclopedia.com/index.php/Category:Diocese_of_La_Crosse

Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (Institute of Christ the King) Controversial international Latin-rite religious order of traditional Catholic priests loyal to Rome with which Bishop Raymond L. Burke allied himself 1990s.

Institute of Christ the King scandal Rev. Timothy Svea, its North American superior, was sentenced to 18-months in jail for tying a 16-year-old boy to his bedpost in the interest of sex games.
Category:Diocese of La Crosse - Eurêka
www.eurekaencyclopedia.com
Diocese of La Crosse Covers an area of west-central Wisconsin, including the city of La Crosse and 19 counties: Adams, Buffalo, Chippewa, Clark, Crawford, Dunn, Eau Claire, Jackson, Juneau, La Crosse, Marathon, Monroe, Pepin, Pierce, Portage, Richland, Trempealeau, Vernon, and Wood.

kilburn

Have you a link to this proposed purchase its news to me

Builderfromhell

http://www.thejournal.ie/group-of-young-priests-band-together-to-buy-a-church-in-limerick-571473-Aug2012/

kilburn

Thats great that it is going to be used again

zulutango

Missed opportunity for the city. There was a lot of talk in the city council that it should be renovated to become the new city library. They dropped the ball on this one.

col.in.Cr

zulutango wrote: »

Missed opportunity for the city. There was a lot of talk in the city council that it should be renovated to become the new city library. They dropped the ball on this one.

By all accounts these people wont be dropping any balls more like bending down to grab them.

Insect Overlord

col.in.Cr wrote: »

By all accounts these people wont be dropping any balls more like bending down to grab them.

Let's not turn this into a Church-bashing thread. There are other forums for those kinds of discussions. Thanks.

postdarwin

While I have little sympathy for the Celtic Tiger developers who bought this place and then bombed, I still am disappointed that this building will revert to religious use. With the country fast becoming more agnostic/atheist (only 47% religious now, compared to 69% in 2006) I feel this can only be a retrograde step for the city.

I appreciate the cultural and historic background of the site, but there's nothing stopping us from turning into a secular landmark in the community. LSAD did pretty well with the Good Shepherd convent.

Edit: Sorry Insect O., missed your warning.

denismac

I passed by there on Saturday and the doors were open. It is an impressive building. There were a few young clergy doing what appeared to be more dismantling than restoring. I thought they were Jesuits salvaging what ever was left. Now I know. At least its not going to be left to decay and fall in on itself.

Insect Overlord

postdarwin wrote: »

Edit: Sorry Insect O., missed your warning.

No worries. I've no problem with people discussing the merits or otherwise of this group's ownership of the building. The "what ifs?" about other things could have been done with it could be interesting too. The comment I quoted above yours is a perfect example of what we don't want here.

Raiser

Noted re. the mod advice - It is indeed a real pity though that this building couldn't have been put to better and more worthwhile use for the people of Limerick......

A2LUE42

Raiser wrote: »

Noted re. the mod advice - It is indeed a real pity though that this building couldn't have been put to better and more worthwhile use for the people of Limerick......

At least if someone takes it over now and keeps the building in a proper state, it leaves the possibility of it being used for what people view as a 'worthwhile use' at some stage in the future. If it was just left to fall apart, it would be gone forever.

source

The question I have is, how does a group of priests afford a large building in a city center location.

mgbgt1978

postdarwin wrote: »

While I have little sympathy for the Celtic Tiger developers who bought this place and then bombed

The guy who bought this particular church was a Galway based developer John O'dolan.
He was found dead in a shed on his property in march 2009.
I don't think there was any bombing involved......

kilburn

mgbgt1978 wrote: »

The guy who bought this particular church was a Galway based developer John O'dolan.
He was found dead in a shed on his property in march 2009.
I don't think there was any bombing involved......

Sure he means bombed as in value and yes unfortunately it did from 6m down to 1m

M three

Some conflicting stories regarding the demise of the Galway developer that once owned it, John O'Dolan;

http://www.soldiersofdestiny.org/iscallelyacrooktoo.htm
John O'Dolan, the driving force behind the plan, tragically took his own life. He was found hanged in a disused shed on lands he owned on the Barna Road in Galway.

"Saturday February 28 2009"
Source:
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/body-of-major-developer-is-found-in-shed-1656971.html
Gardai in Galway say they are treating the discovery of the body of John O'Dolan at a shed on his property on the Barna Road as a tragic accident.

"Mr O’Dolan died in tragic circumstances in February 2008"
Source:
http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/20811

So was it a tragic accident or a suicide?
And did it happen in Feb 2009 or Feb 2008?

kilburn

The man is dead let him rest in peace and not speculate on his death, what happened him is not relevant to the church being purchased again. Again would have loved the church to have been made into a library or museum but that is life, just glad to see it occupied and open

Clareman

There has already been a mod warning on this thread to not turn this into a church bashing thread, this discussion is around the Old Jesuit Church and the plans for it, not other issues relating to other religious organisations, as has been mentioned already, there are other forums for those discussion.

Clareman

I have cleaned up this thread of a lot of off topic discussion that has been going on (including posts by myself), as per the mod warning, lets keep this discussion to the building in questions and not religious orders.

As always, if you have a problem with my modding, feel free to PM another mod, a cmod or open a feedback discussion.

Raiser

Mod edit:Raiser banned for a week

kilburn

Raiser wrote: »

Mod Edit to remove original post

Raiser I am quite surprised at your disgusting comment on suicide and you should be ashamed of yourself, there are hundreds of families throughout the country affected by suicide and that is just a thick ignorant comment to make

Clareman

Raiser banned for a week for his disgusting comment.

M three, I deleted your post as speculation into a death (either suicide or accident) I don't feel has a place in a regional forum

Clareman

I was cleaning up the whole thread, there were a few posts (my own included) which were off topic, my apologies M

M three

Was talk of it being turned into a nightclub, celtic tiger era obviously.
You just know if it had been it would have been called "the Church"
Would have done a lot for the bank pub and souths if it was a nightclub.

zulutango

The city councillor Kathleen Leddin was pushing hard for the city council to purchase it and renovate it to house the city library. The library needs to be moved, but the officials resisted every attempt by the councillor as their preference is to build a brand new building (in the potato market I believe).

http://www.limerickpost.ie/index.php/navigation-mainmenu-30/local-news/4183-jesuit-building-back-on-agenda-as-city-library.html

M three

zulutango wrote: »

The city councillor Kathleen Leddin was pushing hard for the city council to purchase it and renovate it to house the city library. The library needs to be moved, but the officials resisted every attempt by the councillor as their preference is to build a brand new building (in the potato market I believe).

http://www.limerickpost.ie/index.php/navigation-mainmenu-30/local-news/4183-jesuit-building-back-on-agenda-as-city-library.html

New build or modern building probably better for a library. I mean how would you go about heating an old church, so the books and archived materials dont get damp or fusty.
Also wiring an old building particularly an old church for modern library IT infrastructure would be a nightmare. Plus preservation orders would restrict what you could do with it.

What are they going to do with the old granary library? Is that part of the opera centre development? Has any work started on that yet?

ian87

I was speaking to a man who is very in the know about things in the diocese and he was telling me the priests who bought it are what the general public know to be Opus Dei from the da vinci code fame. Masses will be said in Latin, with no responses, and with the priests back to the congregation. Or so I'm led to believe anyway. It will be interesting to see joe public's attendance and involvement..

zulutango

M three wrote: »

New build or modern building probably better for a library. I mean how would you go about heating an old church, so the books and archived materials dont get damp or fusty.
Also wiring an old building particularly an old church for modern library IT infrastructure would be a nightmare. Plus preservation orders would restrict what you could do with it.

What are they going to do with the old granary library? Is that part of the opera centre development? Has any work started on that yet?

It's not impossible to renovate an old building for use as a library. I was involved, as an engineer, in a similar restoration project myself. There's plenty of examples worldwide of similar projects. Sure, even the Granary which has housed the library for nearly three decades is a very old building and it was fine.

Not sure what's happening with the Granary. Don't think it's part of the Opera Centre plan (stupid name!). I think the library is being moved because the City Council doesn't own the Granary. They are leasing it from Shannon Development.

M three

zulutango wrote: »

It's not impossible to renovate an old building for use as a library. I was involved, as an engineer, in a similar restoration project myself. There's plenty of examples worldwide of similar projects. Sure, even the Granary which has housed the library for nearly three decades is a very old building and it was fine.

Not sure what's happening with the Granary. Don't think it's part of the Opera Centre plan (stupid name!). I think the library is being moved because the City Council doesn't own the Granary. They are leasing it from Shannon Development.

True its not impossible but heating and maintenance costs would be higher if you housed a library in an old church versus a new, fully insulated building I'd imagine.

Perhaps Shannon development are subtly preparing their own exit and want current tenants out first? Makes more sense for them to be based in shannon industrial park imo. Or silicon valley working 24/7 trying to entice foreign tech companies to come here. Or helping indigenous Irish companies involved in food or engineering grow and employ more people.

Sitting on their arses in the granary wont achieve much

zulutango

M three wrote: »

True its not impossible but heating and maintenance costs would be higher if you housed a library in an old church versus a new, fully insulated building I'd imagine.

Yes, they most likely would be, depending on how well it was renovated of course. But you'd have to weigh up that against the benefit of having a library in the city centre in a classical building. It's a no brainer in my mind. A library there would have been magnificent.

M three wrote: »

Perhaps Shannon development are subtly preparing their own exit and want current tenants out first? Makes more sense for them to be based in shannon industrial park imo. Or silicon valley working 24/7 trying to entice foreign tech companies to come here. Or helping indigenous Irish companies involved in food or engineering grow and employ more people.

Sitting on their arses in the granary wont achieve much

I've no idea what Shannon Development are up to. That discussion is for a different thread I guess.

Clareboy

I am delighted to hear that the Jesuit Church in Limerick has been acquired by the Institute of Christ The King Sovereign Priest. It will be great to see this fine church re-opened for Mass in the Traditional Latin Rite. Wonderful News!