Dublin churches prepare to celebrate Culture Night 2016

Dublin's Catholic archdiocese will mark Culture Night 2016 on Friday evening with events at the Pro-Cathedral on Marlborough Street.

The night will begin with sung evening prayer at the cathedral at 5.15pm, followed by a sung Mass with the Palestrina boys' choir.

At 7pm, A Sanctifying Thing will look at the life of Padraig Pearse, with recitations from his works by Bryan Murray and Úna Crawford O'Brien, and musical interludes by Mary Flynn and Mary O'Donnell.

At 8.15pm, there will be a concert of reflective and inspirational sacred music with Deirdre Doyle, Denice Doyle and David Doyle.

The evening concludes with sung night prayer.

Meanwhile, Culture Night at Clonliffe College in Drumcondra will celebrate 75 years of Crossscare, the archdiocese's social support agency.

Chief excutive Conor Hickey and colleagues will present a demonstration of their work in the Marmion Room from 7pm on Friday.

At 6.30pm, in the college church, Fr Damian McNeice will present a talk on Clonliffe, its history and architecture and how it remains such an important place in the religious and cultural heritage of the archdiocese.

From 8pm, in the college’s Academy Room, the Dublin Diocesan Music Group, led by Fr Pat O’Donoghue, will present Make A Song and Dance about 1941.

The event will include a swing band, while diocesan archivist Noelle Dowling will present previously unseen material from 1941.

People are encouraged to come along dressed in a 1940s style to add to the atmosphere.

St Doulagh’s Church

In Balgriffin, Co Dublin, the Church of Ireland St Doulagh's Church will take part in Culture Night for the first time, with music, tours, and talks until 10pm.

Donations to St Doulagh’s Restoration Fund Appeal will be welcome.

The appeal was launched last May to preserve the ancient church. It hopes to raise €300,000.

The unique Church of Ireland parish church in Monkstown, Co Dublin, will open for the first time on Culture Night, with self-guided tours accompanied by music on its historic organ.

The church is much admired today, but in Victorian Dublin it was once described as a “perversion of judgment and taste.”