JOHN HANNAN was so angry when the bell at the local church went silent he picked up the phone and rang the Pope.John said: “I rang international inquiries and asked to be put through to the Pope in the Vatican. I got through to a female in the office and I told her to tell Pope Benedict about the bell in Kilmallock not ringing any more.”
He has also contacted the office of the Bishop of Limerick, Dr Donal Murray, about the loss of the bell peal from the belfry at St Peter and St Paul parish church.
John said he is disgusted the bell has been silenced. His father, William, received a papal medal for his work as a church campanologist many years ago.
John claims the bell is no longer being rung because it might interfere with a broadband installation in the belfry, for which the church is receiving rental payments.
John said: “They’re beaming broadband from the belfry and now the bell in Kilmallock is silent. If you want to go on the internet you will get on much faster in Kilmallock courtesy of the belfry.”
Elderly people, he said, are also very upset.
Tommy Allen, who used to ring the bell for the angelus, funerals and other occasions, retired earlier this year.
A spokesman for Zone broadband denied its equipment had anything to do with the bell not being rung. It had antennae in the church since February 2000 and the bell was rung up to September 2007.
Parish priest Canon Willie Fitzmaurice said there is a contract with a broadband company for use of the belfry, but this had nothing to do with the cessation of bell ringing.
Canon Fitzmaurice said: “The bell is not being rung because there is no one available to do so. I understand where people are coming from.”
But the good news is he hopes to have a new system in place within the next couple of weeks whereby a switch in the sacristy will trigger a mechanism to swing the bell in the belfry, restoring the old peal.
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