A brave County Kildare parish priest celebrated mass last weekend
just minutes after confronting raiders brandishing knives at his home.
Fr Eddie Moore (74) from Allenwood in County Kildare
stopped masked robbers from emptying the parish safe at his parochial
house in the town and moments later he walked the short distance to the
Allenwood church and explained the reason for his lateness to stunned
parishioners.
After Fr Moore had recounted his terrifying ordeal to the congregation he proceeded to say mass as normal.
It is believed that Fr Moore had answered a knock at the parochial
house door when two men came at him brandishing their knives and warned
him he would be injured if he didn't open the safe.
However instead of panicking, Fr Moore activated the alarm, causing
the raiders to panic and flee and taking the keys of his car and his
mobile phone in the process.
A modest Fr Moore said that he had done nothing out of the ordinary in confronting the armed thieves.
“These two men forced me back into the house and asked me to open
the safe. It was before 10:00am mass but when the alarm went off they
ran off. I'm fine now and I don't want to say too much else about it.”
He added, “I've given all the details to the Gardaí, so they are taking it from there.”
Local Gardaí are also appealing for any witnesses to the incident to contact them at Naas Garda station on (045) 897 333.