Members of Castlebar town Council have narrowly rejected a proposal
to scrap the practice of saying prayers at the beginning of meetings.
Councillors Harry Barrett (Labour) and Therese Ruane (Sinn Féin)
sought to have the prayer replaced with a ‘minute of reflection’ and
while this was backed by Cllrs Ger Deere and Noreen Heston (FG), it was
opposed by other members.
Ms Ruane, arguing the council needed to be more multi-cultural, said,
“The saying of a prayer is an issue and it would be far more
appropriate to hold a minute’s silence for reflection.” Cllr Barrett
said the reciting of prayers posed a problem if a mayor had a different
religion to Catholicism or no religion at all and said, “We have to be
more inclusive in that respect.”
Cllr Heston said Castlebar was a “multicultural society and “faith is
a very private matter.”
But independent councillor Frank Durcan said
it was important to “maintain a Catholic ethos” and said elected members
who did not want to pray could have their minute’s reflection instead.
“It will be a damn indictment if we did away with a prayer – I am
concerned that Catholicism is being shoved back more and more in this
country,” Cllr Durcan remarked. “I have already seen hospital wards
named after saints being re-named,” he added.
“I don’t believe we should dispense with the tradition of reciting
prayers as the people who elect us are predominantly Catholic.”
Fellow independent member Michael Kilcoyne said the majority of
people in Castlebar are Christian and “a mayor with Christian beliefs
should have the option of reciting the Our Father, which is an
all-encompassing prayer.”
On a show of hands, the motion that a minute’s reflection shall
precede the business of the meeting, replacing the prayer was defeated
by a margin of four to three.
The chairman of Mayo County Council, Cllr Michael Burke, announced
last August that the Lord’s Prayer will continue to be recited before
meetings of that assembly, but some years ago, both Westport and Ballina
town councils discontinued the saying of a prayer before meetings.