Has anyone ever attended one, or know of any? Can you tell me about them? I've seen mentions of Gaelic speaking congregations, but I'm curious how many people can conduct their spiritual lives through the medium of Irish. Thank you!

There is a weekly live radio broadcast of Mass in Irish from different churches in the Gaeltacht on Radió na Gaeltachta on Sunday. Depending on where you are this can be very early in the morning--around 3 AM on the West coast. Here is a link:

http://www.rte.ie/rnag/schedule.html

Unfortunately, the schedule only covers two days at a time, so you will have to wait till Saturday to get a look at the Sunday schedule--depending on where you are of course.

Our local church holds all the services in Irish as it is in a Gaeltacht area.

There are 5 churches in two dioceses (Tuam & Galway) within a 12 mile radius and they all have daily and Sunday Masses with varying degrees of attendance at the former and reasonably full churches on Saturday Evening/Sunday morning. In addition twice a year there are what might be called "Station" masses thoughout the parish. These are mases celebrated in spring and autumn in a private house in each townland - called a "ceantair faoistine" by our priest but I don't know how general that term is - . It rotates from house to house and all the neighbours attend.

In our townland for instance there are about 20 houses so it would take a bit of time to get around..

Hope this helps

Eoin

There is weekly sunday mass in Bray, Co Wicklow, and indeed in many churches in the Dublin Diocese.

http://www.catholicireland.net/pages/index.php?nd=126

http://www.gaelport.com/index.php?page=sites&id=22

There used to be a list of Irish masses in Dublin online, but I can't find it just now.

The Church Of Ireland also has monthly services in Irish, and there are presbyterian services in Irish in Belfast.

"An Tor ar Lasadh" is the organisation behind the latter.

I forgot to say that my family and I often attend the mass in Bray.

Not overjoyed about this change though:

quote:

The Archbishop has designated Holy Redeemer as the Church to provide an Irish Mass for the Bray area. The proposal to move the Irish Mass to Saturday at 7.30 p.m. did not seem to have much support, so we are proposing to amalgamate the 8.30 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. Masses and have a 9.00 a.m. Mass. The 9.00 a.m. Mass will be in Irish with the homily and notices in English and the Readings in both Irish and English.

http://www.holyredeemerbray.ie

I sent an e-mail to the dublin diocese. The list should be back in a week or two, they are in the midst of a website revamp.

It is in the printed diocesan directory, and they offered to post me a list.

OK...true story for those who are interested:

I was, as some of the "old timers" here will remember, sent to the Horn of Africa as part of this "global war" thing. My weeks were spent in utter boredom punctuated by a nearly inhumane pace to prepare for something that had to be done on a moments notice. In other words, it was the classic "hurry up and wait" work schedule inherent in most military organizations. I took adavantage of these lulls in activity to finally finish my conversion to Catholicism. Imagine...a Southern Baptist in a former French colony that is nearly 100% Muslim receiving Catholic education from a Ugandan priest with the ceremony conducted by an Italian Bishop. Was it Antaine who said it was a "universal" church?!?!

At any rate, shortly after this took place, I was sitting at the computer and stumbled across RnaG's live Mass. On that day, it was being broadcast from a small chapel in An Spideal. Two years earlier, my wife and I had visited that very chapel as part of our whirlwind tour of the gaeltachtai. As I sat there listening to Mass as Gaeilge, as a new Catholic I realized that my wife was at Mass that same day hearing those same words as bearla in our church at home. For my part, I only understood perhaps 3 words in 20 as the Irish priest said Mass but I was able to follow along with the Síochán Leat, Ár n-Athair and the other aspects of the Catholic ritual. It was an incredibly moving experience. There I was an ocean and a continent away from my home, listening to Mass broadcast from a chapel in which my wife and I had sat, Mass spoken in a language my ancestors spoke however many years ago....it was just one of those moments when you realize how small the world really is and how there must be a higher power looking over us. I can't really describe it..all I can say is that it was a very moving experience.

So..yes, there are places where Mass is said in Irish and, little do they know, that Mass reaches a much broader audience than those sitting in the pews.

Is mise,

James

James' story sent me looking for the Diocese of Tuam's website (covers conamara)

No list of masses, but a bilingual website:

http://www.towardsthegoal.com/index_irish.html

Kerry Diocese, disappointingly, even has Gaeltacht names in English:

http://www.dioceseofkerry.ie/

Raphoe (covers Dún na nGall) is slightly better:

http://www.raphoediocese.com/gaeltachtai.htm

At most of the Daltaí weekends Mass is read in Irish. It is easy to follow along since they hand out bilingual pamphlets with the prayers, readings and hymns printed out.

Mass also can be heard as Gaeilge at some of the Irish festivals around the country.

Thank you everyone for all the information. I'm actually surprised. I expected there to be a very small presence of the Irish language in the Church.

Eoin, that's wonderful that you get to attend service in Irish, and even nicer to hear that they're usually full.

Aonghus, thank you so much for all the links! That's too bad that that the Kerry Diocese isn't incorporating Irish more. Although the Tuam website is very nice. James, your story is great! I'm glad you could experience a service that way, even if you didn't understand much.

I too was surprised and pleased about the amount of services through Irish. That is really a very grand thing. Its nice that such things exist in Dublin as well as in the Gaeltacht, indeed I was the most surprised about the amount of churches in the Dublin area who conduct services in Irish.

Beir bua agus beannacht

While studying at Oideas Gael, I attended Mass in Glen Colmcille (Donegal), and it was half in Irish and half in English. The priest gave the homily in English, but most of the prayers were in Irish - first time I attended a bi-lingual Mass.

The Diocese of Tuam does not cover the entire Gaeltacht here. Here is a list of the Churches

Bearna, na Forbacha, An Spidéal (Gaillimh), An Cnoch (Tuama), na Minna (Gaillimh), An Tulach (Tuama), Ros a'Mhíl (Gaillimh), An Ceathrú Rua (Tuama), Leitir Móir (Gaillimh), Tír an Fhia agus Leitir Mealláin (Tuama) agus Ros Muc (Gaillimh). Tá gach paróiste eile i nDeoise Tuama.

The reason for the confusion is hidden in the establishment of the Galway Diocese in the 19th century mostly from Tuam but it also incorporates Cill Mac Duagh agus the bishop of Galway is also the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Kilfanora "The Pope's Diocese". Prior to that time Galway did not have a bishop or cathedral but had a Collegiate Church (St Nicholas).

It is a pity that in Church governance as in civil administration the Gaeltachts are administered by a multiplicity of bodys who have a far greater constituency outside of the Gaeltacht.

Eoin

Anois teacht an Earraigh?

http://www.galwaydiocese.com/

Níl dada ann.

Tuam came off the top of my head. As a dweller in the Pale, my geography of west of the shannon is suspect sometimes...

James,

I loved your story. Indeed someone is watching over us - especially when we're sure we have everything under control!

Welcome to the fold.

I attended Sunday mass recently in Ceann Tra (Ciarrai) - actually the church is located at Fionn Tra, although both locations are called Ventry in English. The mass was conducted wholly as Gaeilge, including the homily. Having read the parish notices after the homily, the priest then intoned "and now for the benefitof our visitors..." and re-read the parish notices in English

The Church is located at Árd a' Bhóthair (beside Paidí Ó Sé's pub).

Fionn Trá is the beach
Ceann Trá is the village at the head of the beach


All masses west of Dingle, and several east of it on Corca Dhuibhne, are in Irish.

Táimse ag dul siar mé fhéin ag deireadh na seachtaine, agus freastalóidh mé ar Séipeal na Carraige.

http://www.dioceseofkerry.ie/pages/parish/Ballyferriter.htm

A chairde,

There's a monthly mass in Irish at St Peter's College in Jersey City, New Jersey, during the school year. It's been going on for years.
When I find out the dates, I'll post them.

Áth mór,
Paul