The faithful flock to Galway for marathon of devotion

For nine days each year, Galway Cathedral becomes a gathering place for people eager to take part in the annual novena

SHE WAS small, frail and thin, bearing brick-heavy bags. Casting them aside, she fell down on her knees on the marble and within seconds, she was lost in prayer, one of hundreds filling Galway Cathedral on a brisk, bright afternoon this week.

In front of the woman were rows upon rows of people in prayer ranging from young mothers with babies in buggies, students taking a break from exam study, men in their 30s, a selection of “new Irish” and women of a “certain age”. Behind her, an usher wearing a purple sash was trying to find a few spare seats.

Up on the altar, Fr Kieran Brady of the Redemptorist Order recalled a Scot visiting Ireland during the lead-up to a record-breaking Lotto draw. The visitor was tempted to buy a ticket but was told by a local person: “You can’t ! You’d have to give your winnings to the Church.”

Fr Brady said the eventual winner of the lotto millions, a woman from the west, revealed she had drawn on the scriptures for her winning numbers. It would not change her one whit, she assured journalists.

“And then she hired a helicopter and limousine for the trip to get the cheque in Dublin,” Fr Brady said to ripples of laughter through the Cathedral of our Lady of Assumed Into Heaven and St Nicholas – otherwise known as “Taj Micheál”.

Built during the reign of former Galway bishop Dr Michael Browne on the site of the old city gaol, this is the Cathedral’s busiest period, the nine days of the annual Redemptorist novena held every February, when between 10,000 and 15,000 stream through its doors.

Six masses are held each day during the novena which opened last Monday and continues until next Tuesday. The Masses last 45 minutes and the programme runs like “clockwork” with 12 Redemptorist priests supported by a team of up to 150 lay volunteers, according to novena director, Fr Michael Cusack.

Late-night music and special events also feature, such as a blessing of babies and children and a novena of “all nations” which will take place tomorrow.

Knock Shrine in Co Mayo still hosts the “national” novena every August, and the Redemptorists also hold novena congregations in Limerick, Dublin, Belfast, Athenry and Ballinasloe as well as Galway.

Fr Cusack joined the Redemptorist order when he was 16, and participated in the first such novena in the cathedral across the road 27 years ago.

“I was one of a group of 19 that started it, and I worked as a Eucharistic minister. The bishop of Galway, Dr Eamon Casey, had invited the order to host it, and it is a great tribute to the people of this city that it has weathered many crises and gone from strength to strength.”

The Galway novena has had its moments. In February 1987, for instance, Progressive Democrats TD Bobby Molloy topped the poll in Galway West despite what he alleged was a “dirty tricks campaign” in which a leaflet was handed out at the Galway novena urging people to vote for four Fianna Fáil TDs and a handful of independents to ensure the “survival of the Christian family”.

In the mid-1990s, there was a debate in the letters page of this newspaper over the traffic chaos that the Galway event caused, both on roads and on footpaths where cars were parked with “gay abandon”.

Last year, the Redemptorists began streaming their Limerick novena on the website, novena.ie, complete with a virtual candle which could be clicked for a petition. But in Galway the congregations still prefer to physically make the journey from all parts of the county and beyond, with a substantial number taking annual leave from work to attend, according to Fr Cusack.

A dedicated scripture team works on the novena theme a year in advance; this year’s theme is “A life worth living – finding the key to happiness”.

“But of course the homilies can be fine-tuned as it has been this year because of current events,” says Fr Cusack.

“Unemployment and fear of unemployment has certainly been a recurring theme in petitions. There also seems to be an increase in prayers for people affected by suicide. I think that we need to focus on a message of hope. People want to hear how others are coping. I feel we are already hearing too much about that word, recession.”

At one of the Cathedral doors, a man hands out miraculous medals to passing strangers which he has purchased from Sharon Gallagher, who runs her father’s religious goods stall across the road.

From Pettigo in Co Donegal, Gallagher says she enjoys the atmosphere at the Galway novena. “It is always very positive,” she says.

She sells everything from crosses to automotive clips to prayers for motorists, but the rosary beads and miraculous medals are still the most popular.

Danny Duggan from Renmore in Galway has been coming here for eight years. “It offers a change in the pace, particularly for those who might be unbelievers,” he says.

"We all need a bit of it. Don't we all need a mission in life?" Many people approached by The Irish Timeswere reluctant to talk about why they were there, saying it was private.