THE CHURCH of Ireland rector in Tralee has said he has received an apology from the organisers of the annual Rose of Tralee festival over the organising of the festival’s religious service this year.
The issue arose in July when Rev Robert Warren, who is also Archdeacon of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe, questioned in his parish newsletter whether the festival was now “a Roman Catholic festival” and was forgetting its roots and traditions in the community.
He explained how the Church of Ireland had shared a rota with the town’s three Catholic churches in hosting the main religious event.
The hosting of the event in St John’s Church of Ireland church was always a huge occasion, involving months of planning, he said. However, these arrangements has been “unilaterally” shelved and replaced by an outdoor Mass without consultation with his church, he wrote.
Rev Warren has now told his parishioners he had a meeting with festival organisers. “During the discussions Mr Oliver Hurley and Mr Brian Carr, who are now responsible for the street events of the festival, explained that they were not aware of the arrangement whereby the festival service would rotate around the churches of the town and they apologised for this,” he wrote.
“We agreed that this year the ‘Mass in the Park’ would proceed as planned. It was further agreed that the organisers of the festival would meet the clergy of the churches in early October to review the situation and that subject to the outcome of this meeting, that we [the Church of Ireland] would be responsible for hosting next year’s service.”
A spokesman for the festival had no comment.