Latest Building News

Parish Church Building Project

June 2019

Dear Parishioners,

Last September we advised you that the “Project 200” Church Building Works had been contracted and that the works were underway. We are happy to say that the contracted works we outlined then have now been completed i.e.

replacing the southern gable wall and rebuilding the attached boiler-house;
re-slating both roofs and doing related upgrading to the insulation in the attic, renewing the flat roofs, parapets, valleys, gutters and downpipes;
replacing and automating all the clerestory windows;
re-wiring the church electrical systems, and reconnecting the external ground-lights, illuminating the tower;
upgrading the Sacristy and Storage area.

The tender amount for all this work was €457,459, and the final cost, after the addition of some agreed variations came to €483,523. While all this work was going on we took the moment to upgrade our sound system at a cost of €7,977.

Professional fees came to €86,055.

The total expenditure on all these works has been €577,555 (close enough to our estimate last September of €575,000.00).

We are most grateful for your co-operation and patience with all the disruptions to our services during these works.

We are especially grateful for the very great generosity of parishioners to our fund-raising appeal. Since we launched the special appeal (with a target of €200,000) in April of last year a total of just over €150,000.00 has been donated [which included a Gubay Grant of €25,243.00]. All of this has allowed us to cover our costs when added to an earlier special donation of €25,500 and a bequest of €379,934.

All of the above works were necessary repairs and upgrading to our basic infrastructure but more now needs to be done. Our Parish Buildings Committee now recommend that we should also attend to the following works:

the repainting of the church (inside and outside) [including the re-lining of the western wall]

re-painting in the Parish Pastoral Centre
upgrading of the two church porches (including the automating of the side-door to give easier access,)
cleaning and re-lacquering the floor
upgrading the book/ magazine display unit
providing a proper cover for the Baptism Font and a hand-rail for the Ambo.

We estimate that these new works could cost just over €150,000.00. While we do have the finances available to cover these costs it will mean that our reserves will be seriously depleted and we estimate that we will need to raise approximately €50,000 in continuing fund-raising.

Once again, may we thank you for your very generous support and your patience with the inconvenience involved in all these works.