The timber spire of St Mary's Church in Ruan was hit by lightning and caught fire shortly before 3.45am on Sunday.
As firefighters arrived at the scene and prepared to battle the blaze, the spire collapsed in flames onto the ground in front of them. Thankfully, no injuries were reported.
Fr Pat O'Neill, parish priest of the Ruan Dysart Parish, said it was lucky the steeple did not collapse onto the main building of the church, and that the fire was brought under control before it could spread.
“If the steeple had fallen on the church, everything would have been gone. We were very, very lucky,” he said.
Fr O’Neill said the spire’s lightning rods were checked only within the last couple of weeks. If the blaze had spread to the church, the fire could have impacted “an awful lot of houses” in the village, he said.
Fr O’Neill said he was at home across the road from the church when the lightning strike happened.
“What actually happened was there was a man from the locality coming home in the car and he saw the fire, it was just beginning,” he said.
“He alerted some of the local people and their kids were looking out. They were worried because the bang was so loud that it had frightened them, and then we got up to see what was happening and they saw the church beginning to light.”
At that point, some of the locals banged on the door to tell Fr O’Neill the church was on fire.
“It was just beginning at that stage, but you know it took alight very, very quickly," he told RTÉ radio's
Fr O’Neill said once the blaze took hold, there was a fear that “the whole church would go”.
“There was a gas tank that had been filled — we use gas for the heating — and when the fire brigade came, they spent a lot of time dousing down the tank to keep it cool so that nothing would happen there," he said.
Emergency services and units of Clare County Fire and Rescue from Ennis attended the scene and Fr O’Neill praised their efforts.
“I must say that the fire brigade, they were here in jig time, they were here in about 17 minutes or thereabouts from the time they were called. They were excellent.”
Asked how he and the parish would manage Christmas masses over the next couple of days, Fr O’Neill said: “We’ll see”.
“The church itself is OK. The difficulty is that we have no electricity, we have no heating in the church. All of the electrics will have to be redone.”
He said the lightning strike blew the church’s fuse box out of the wall and damaged all of the electrics.
That said, Fr O’Neill said he was certain there would be midnight mass in Ruan on Christmas Eve.
“If we haven't it in the church, we'll have it in the hall. But we will have it here for sure.”
He said people from the insurance company were due to arrive on Monday and health and safety "will have to come into everything as well".
“But if it's possible to have it in the church, we’ll have it in the church.”
Fr O’Neill also paid tribute to the members of the local community who pitched in with the clean-up effort throughout the day on Sunday.