Bigoted council preying on Catholics’ basic rights (Opinion)

AS an act of petty, ignor­ant and jaun­diced right­eous­ness, Dub­lin City Coun­cil’s high-handed com­mand to an iconic city-centre church to remove its Mass times notice from its rail­ings is hard to beat.

Can’t you just ima­gine the tri­umphant glee of some pathetic little jobsworth when they (I bet it’s a ‘they’) real­ised St Andrew’s Church on West­land Row could be pen­al­ised under plan­ning laws for dis­play­ing the notice of ser­vices on the pro­tec­ted rail­ings in the same man­ner as it has done for almost 200 years?

How the vir­tue-sig­nalling wetwipes in the coun­cil must have high-fived the genius who spot­ted this latest oppor­tun­ity to take another pot­shot at the Cath­olic Church and the coun­try’s Chris­tian her­it­age.

The coveted ‘Employee of the Month’ mug, pre­vi­ously treas­ured by the bright spark who came up with the idea of the ‘Winter Lights Fest­ival’ to avoid any men­tion of the word Christ­mas, has surely landed on a new desk.

In 1829, Daniel O’Con­nell secured Cath­olic Eman­cip­a­tion, and the repeal of the Penal Laws, through the Cath­olic Relief Act. Three years later, the foun­d­acul­tur­ally tions of St Andrew’s Church were laid in the very heart of the cap­ital, to provide a place of wor­ship for the cit­izens of the inner city.

Cramped

The Lib­er­ator him­self donated the bap­tis­mal font, and a mor­tu­ary chapel was later added so the tene­ment-dwell­ers of the area no longer needed to wake their dead in their cramped homes.

Since it opened in 1837, St Andrew’s has placed a sign on its rail­ings noti­fy­ing pass­ers-by, tour­ists and vis­it­ors as well as loc­als, of the times of its ser­vices – Masses, Con­fes­sions, Sta­tions of the Cross. Over Christ­mas and Easter in par­tic­u­lar, when extra ser­vices are cel­eb­rated, it is par­tic­u­larly import­ant that up-tod­ate sched­ules are pos­ted.

And so it was at Easter time, the greatest cel­eb­ra­tion in the Chris­tian cal­en­dar, that Dub­lin City Coun­cil chose to strike with its shabby little diktat.

Along­side its tra­di­tional notice advising parish­ion­ers of Easter Mass times, last week the church was forced to dis­play a sign stat­ing: ‘We have been informed by Dub­lin City Coun­cil that notices such as this, that have been in place since the mid-nine­teenth cen­tury, are in breach of our plan­ning laws and have to be removed.’

So a ser­vice to the local com­munity, which was in place long before either Dub­lin City Coun­cil or plan­ning laws were ever heard of, has to be dis­con­tin­ued by order of Dub­lin City Coun­cil and plan­ning laws.

As ‘this leaves us with greatly reduced means to inform you’ of ser­vice times over the Easter cel­eb­ra­tions, includ­ing the fact that world-class sop­rano Celine Byrne was to per­form dur­ing the litur­gies, St Andrew’s asked parish­ion­ers to ‘assist us by shar­ing this inform­a­tion on social media’. Because I’m sure the older mem­bers of the church’s con­greg­a­tion are never off Tik­Tok these days.

As the church has been forced to con­sult law­yers, incur­ring expenses it could surely do without, and is hop­ing to find a way for­ward in con­sulta­tion with the coun­cil, par­ish admin­is­trator Fr Alan Hil­liard told our sis­ter paper, The Irish Mail on Sunday, they couldn’t really com­ment on the mat­ter for the moment.

But he did admit that it was ‘a bit of a shock’ to receive the missive telling him the prac­tice of fix­ing notices to the front rail­ings, one dat­ing back ‘a long num­ber of years’, had to cease.

Local Inde­pend­ent coun­cil­lor Man­nix Flynn, never one to mince his words any­way, was less con­strained in his response to this absurd bur­eau­cratic over­reach. This was a church with a ‘dwind­ling flock’, he said, ‘try­ing to tell people that this church is open – they’re not advert­ising half-price Vic­toria’s Secret’.

And he poin­ted out that the coun­cil’s argu­ment, that the rail­ings are pro­tec­ted struc­tures, doesn’t hold water, as other pro­tec­ted struc­tures in the area are per­mit­ted to hang notices on their equally ven­er­able and ancient rail­ings.6

‘This is where the city coun­cil gets a little bit ridicu­lous,’ he said, surely a mas­ter­ful under­state­ment. ‘If you go round to the National Gal­lery of Ire­land or Collins Bar­racks, you’ll see signs plastered all over the place and there’s no issue in rela­tion to it, because it’s seen as cul­tural.’

So paint­ings, mil­it­ary arte­facts and stuffed dead anim­als are so import­ant that plan­ning laws can be waived to advert­ise them to the pub­lic, but a notice telling parish­ion­ers of Mass times in a 200-year-old church, in a coun­try in which 70% of the pop­u­la­tion iden­ti­fied as Cath­olic in the 2022 census, has no his­toric or cul­tural sig­ni­fic­ance? How exactly do the they/thems of Dub­lin City Coun­cil reason that one out?

Mock­ing, belittling and den­ig­rat­ing the Cath­olic Church in Ire­land has long been a pop­u­lar sport with this coun­try’s self­styled lib­eral elite, and it is dif­fi­cult to see this spite­ful meas­ure as any­thing other than a bid by the coun­cil to burn­ish its woke cre­den­tials once again.

Pub­li­city

Have a look back at the coun­cil’s online pub­li­city for its 2025 Christ­mas fest­iv­it­ies, and see if you can find the C-word any­where in all that care­fully cur­ated, quaver­ingly anxious and achingly neutered blather – I cer­tainly could not.

You’ve got to won­der who, exactly, the city coun­cil is hop­ing to impress, to pander to or to curry favour with, through disin­genu­ous and craven meas­ures like these.

Is it just about show­ing off how ‘pro­gress­ive’ they are up there in City Hall? Or are they fear­ful of offend­ing reli­gious minor­it­ies – other than the Jews, of course, since the coun­cil’s efforts to rename Herzog Park con­tinue apace – by acknow­ledging that this is a AS an act of petty, ignorant and jaundiced righteousness, Dublin City Council’s high-handed command to an iconic city-centre church to remove its Mass times notice from its railings is hard to beat.

Can’t you just imagine the triumphant glee of some pathetic little jobsworth when they (I bet it’s a ‘they’) realised St Andrew’s Church on Westland Row could be penalised under planning laws for displaying the notice of services on the protected railings in the same manner as it has done for almost 200 years?

How the virtue-signalling wetwipes in the council must have high-fived the genius who spotted this latest opportunity to take another potshot at the Catholic Church and the country’s Christian heritage.

The coveted ‘Employee of the Month’ mug, previously treasured by the bright spark who came up with the idea of the ‘Winter Lights Festival’ to avoid any mention of the word Christmas, has surely landed on a new desk.

In 1829, Daniel O’Connell secured Catholic Emancipation, and the repeal of the Penal Laws, through the Catholic Relief Act. Three years later, the foundaculturally tions of St Andrew’s Church were laid in the very heart of the capital, to provide a place of worship for the citizens of the inner city.

The Liberator himself donated the baptismal font, and a mortuary chapel was later added so the tenement-dwellers of the area no longer needed to wake their dead in their cramped homes.

Since it opened in 1837, St Andrew’s has placed a sign on its railings notifying passers-by, tourists and visitors as well as locals, of the times of its services – Masses, Confessions, Stations of the Cross. Over Christmas and Easter in particular, when extra services are celebrated, it is particularly important that up-todate schedules are posted.

And so it was at Easter time, the greatest celebration in the Christian calendar, that Dublin City Council chose to strike with its shabby little diktat.

Alongside its traditional notice advising parishioners of Easter Mass times, last week the church was forced to display a sign stating: ‘We have been informed by Dublin City Council that notices such as this, that have been in place since the mid-nineteenth century, are in breach of our planning laws and have to be removed.’

So a service to the local community, which was in place long before either Dublin City Council or planning laws were ever heard of, has to be discontinued by order of Dublin City Council and planning laws.

As ‘this leaves us with greatly reduced means to inform you’ of service times over the Easter celebrations, including the fact that world-class soprano Celine Byrne was to perform during the liturgies, St Andrew’s asked parishioners to ‘assist us by sharing this information on social media’. Because I’m sure the older members of the church’s congregation are never off TikTok these days.

As the church has been forced to consult lawyers, incurring expenses it could surely do without, and is hoping to find a way forward in consultation with the council, parish administrator Fr Alan Hilliard told our sister paper, The Irish Mail on Sunday, they couldn’t really comment on the matter for the moment.

But he did admit that it was ‘a bit of a shock’ to receive the missive telling him the practice of fixing notices to the front railings, one dating back ‘a long number of years’, had to cease.

Local Independent councillor Mannix Flynn, never one to mince his words anyway, was less constrained in his response to this absurd bureaucratic overreach. This was a church with a ‘dwindling flock’, he said, ‘trying to tell people that this church is open – they’re not advertising half-price Victoria’s Secret’.

And he pointed out that the council’s argument, that the railings are protected structures, doesn’t hold water, as other protected structures in the area are permitted to hang notices on their equally venerable and ancient railings.

‘This is where the city council gets a little bit ridiculous,’ he said, surely a masterful understatement. ‘If you go round to the National Gallery of Ireland or Collins Barracks, you’ll see signs plastered all over the place and there’s no issue in relation to it, because it’s seen as cultural.’

So paintings, military artefacts and stuffed dead animals are so important that planning laws can be waived to advertise them to the public, but a notice telling parishioners of Mass times in a 200-year-old church, in a country in which 70% of the population identified as Catholic in the 2022 census, has no historic or cultural significance? How exactly do the they/thems of Dublin City Council reason that one out?

Mocking, belittling and denigrating the Catholic Church in Ireland has long been a popular sport with this country’s selfstyled liberal elite, and it is difficult to see this spiteful measure as anything other than a bid by the council to burnish its woke credentials once again.

Have a look back at the council’s online publicity for its 2025 Christmas festivities, and see if you can find the C-word anywhere in all that carefully curated, quaveringly anxious and achingly neutered blather – I certainly could not.

You’ve got to wonder who, exactly, the city council is hoping to impress, to pander to or to curry favour with, through disingenuous and craven measures like these.

Is it just about showing off how ‘progressive’ they are up there in City Hall? Or are they fearful of offending religious minorities – other than the Jews, of course, since the council’s efforts to rename Herzog Park continue apace – by acknowledging that this is a Christian country?

Earlier this year, the Minister for Justice, Jim O’Callaghan, made headlines when he declared that immigrants to this country should respect our ‘social and cultural’ values.

Calculated insults to the country’s Catholic population, such as this, suggest that respect for our history and heritage, our social fabric and our unique culture, should first begin at home.