This is the case in the Bundoran/Ballyshannon (Rock) and Belleek/Garrison, two parishes that have been working together since sweeping diocesan changes came into affect last year. With Canon Munster in Bundoran/The Rock and Fr Beggan in Belleek/Garrison, semi-retired Canon McGourty dividing his time between the two. 

This Easter the parishioners have been asked to make the effort to travel between the parishes for ceremonies, which many were doing already. 

Canon Munster said this was because, rather than having a priest in every church, most parishes now only had one clergy man to cover the entire area. 

“You can’t be in two places at the one time,” said Canon Munster.  “There was a time here 20 years ago when there were five priests here. Now there’s only one, and there is Fr McGourty who is retired and shares his time between Belleek/Garrison too. Again, he can only be in one place at any time. Because of that we’ve had to cut back on the number of celebrations.”

“What we’ve had to do is we’ve just had to arrange the ceremonies in a manner that suits the priests and suits the people,” he added.

Parishioners from Belleek/Garrison, where Masses have already been alternating between churches since last year, have already been travelling into Bundoran parishes for services, depending on what suited best, said Cllr John Coyle. 

“We went into The Rock for Mass on Palm Sunday. We’re used to a 10 o’clock Mass, and it’s in our diocese,” he said, for example, adding they did the same on Ash Wednesday. 

“It’s good the parishes are working together to have Masses to suit people in their busy lives.”