For more than five centuries, the Augustinian friars have played an integral role in the life of two south-east communities.
Even during long periods of suppression of the Catholic Church, the friars of Fethard, Co Tipperary, and Callan, Co Kilkenny, tenaciously held on, maintaining a low-key existence and returning to the open when conditions allowed.
What Henry VIII and Oliver Cromwell after him failed to achieve, however, is set to become a reality at last; one or other of the towns is soon to lose its full-time Augustinian presence. In Fethard, that would break a link stretching back almost 700 years to 1305; the friars have been in Callan since 1467.
Confronted by the problem of an ageing membership and falling vocations, the order has decided to amalgamate its Fethard and Callan communities. The move has caused distress in both towns where the Augustinians are regarded as part of the local heritage.
It has provoked a particularly angry response in Callan, where 400 people attended a public meeting last week at which the provincial of the order, Father Des Foley, was present. Locals were not reassured by his pledge that, even if Fethard is chosen, the friars will continue to minister to the Callan community.
"People depend on the friars here. It would be a great spiritual loss not to have them in the town," says a local resident, Ms Mary Egan.
In Fethard, the response has been more low-key, but feelings are also running high. The situation has been causing "great pain", says the prior there, Father Ben O'Brien.
He recognises that Father Foley has "a heck of a job", but it is traditional for the friars to live within the community. "I don't want to see either house being abandoned."
His counterpart in Callan, Father Henry MacNamara, is openly critical of the way the order's provincial council has gone about implementing the decision.
The council decided on the amalgamation last October, as part of a general rationalisation. The friars affected were asked to make their views known by mid-March.
"They have attained the same skills the Blair government uses in Britain," Father MacNamara says of his religious superiors. "This means the decisions are already made but you sell them in such a way as to give the impression that people are involved in the decision-making process."
He is particularly upset that the Pastoral Council, a lay group established 12 years ago to work with the Augustinians in Callan, has not been included in the consultations.
"The method of arriving at this decision would seem to go against what has been the official policy of the Augustinian Order in Ireland for the past 16 years," he says. "How can you talk about partnership with the laity when the laity and the local Augustinian community are excluded from having any say over the future of their church?"
He acknowledges the "painful decision" that the order has to make in an age of declining personnel, but "to make a decision in which neither the local Augustinian community nor the local people were involved is returning to a kind of hierarchical church".
His colleague, Father Vincent McCarthy, says local friars have been given no say in the decision on their future. He describes the decision as a "betrayal of trust" between the order and the laity.
"That's where the hurt is now - that they ditched the laity on the most historical, momentous decision concerning the people of Callan and their future." The amalgamation, he says, is "closure by stealth".
The chairwoman of the Pastoral Council, Ms Barbara Kelly, recognises that the number of friars will almost certainly be reduced in the future. This is why a partnership was developed with the laity, "so that we could take on a more responsible role in running the church".
Father Foley says he understands the anxieties, "but at the same time changes have to be made".
Even at this late hour, both the Fethard and Callan communities hope a resolution can be arrived at which would avert the effective closure of one or the other.
Father O'Brien says it would be "a little bit pointless" for the friars to minister to any community from a distance. "There are 20 churches within 10 miles of Fethard, so they're not stuck for churches or clergy."
He believes it may be time for the order to consider returning to a more monastic existence, while remaining in their local communities.
Each house has three members at present, which is no fewer than has been the norm for many years.
Two of the friars at Callan, Father MacNamara (47), and Father McCarthy (57), are still a long way from retirement age. The third member of the community, Father Michael Clifford, is 81 and has been in Callan for 32 years.
The age profile in Fethard is higher. Father Michael Twomey and Father John Meagher are 86 and 84 respectively, while Father O'Brien is 62. Callan people fear that Fethard has an advantage, however, in that £350,000 has been collected towards a £700,000 renovation of the 700-year-old Augustinian abbey.
Father O'Brien says that far from being an advantage it is an "embarrassment" that so much money has been contributed by locals, as he cannot now be sure that the friars will be remaining in the town.
The friars are immensely popular in both towns, and not only with churchgoers. "The abbey priests are part of the Fethard community. They are our lifeline," says Ms Kathleen Kenny, a resident who assists in the Augustinian chapel. "People are always calling to the abbey, even if they're not of the Catholic religion."
In Callan, Father MacNamara and Father McCarthy are equally popular. "They're younger men and they're able to communicate with people," says Mr Tom Holden, a local businessman. Father MacNamara returned the compliment at last week's public meeting. "I like it in Callan," he said. "It's got great people, great pubs, a terrific atmosphere. It would be nice to remain here. So what does the future hold? We'll have to wait and see."
