Ballyhaunis St Patricks Church
Penitential Service at 5pm. Sunday 19th December.
On Christmas Eve Confessions will be available from 12 1pm. and 3 4pm.
Mass on Christmas Eve will be at 9pm
Masses on Christmas Day will be at 10am and 12 noon.
Mass will be celebrated on Christmas Eve at 11.30 for the residents in Brookvale Nursing Home.
Sunday 26th is St. Stephen’s Day. Masses will be at 10 and 12noon
Some latest tour dates have been announced for Ireland.
The long awaited tour will take in Cork, Dublin, Armagh and Knock- it’s not Jay Z , it’s not Eminem or even Daniel O’Donnell. It’s not Blink 182 or Muse , The Who or Black Sabbath.
The tour everyone has been waiting for -” The Relics of St John Vianney”
The tour dates are :
Cork at St Francis’s Church, Liberty Street (April 25th);
Dublin - Church of St John Vianney in Ardlea Road, Artane, Dublin (April 26th);
Knock Shrine (April 27th)
Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh (April 28th).
No admission fee.
In Knock the relics will arrive at 12pm, when there will be a liturgy of welcome at the Apparition Chapel. After that the relics will be taken in procession to the Basilica where veneration will take place from 12.30pm to 2.30pm, when veneration will end to allow for preparation for Mass at 3pm
We are not sure what class of relics to expect - these are the official definitions of Relics:
1st Class Relic: a part of the Saint (bone, hair, etc.)
2nd Class Relic: something owned by the Saint or instruments of torture used against a martyr
3rd Class Relic: something that has been touched to a 1st or 2nd Class Relic. You can make your own 3rd Class relics by touching an object to a 1st or 2nd Class Relic, including the tomb of a Saint.
These are real rules - not something off Father Ted!
One relic that exists of John Vianney is supposedly his actual heart ! He died in 1859 !
It will probably not be his heart that is going on this tour - it will probably be a smaller relic like a bit of his flesh or a bone maybe!
I think I’ll be giving this tour a miss - even though it’s free.
CHRISTMAS MASSES 2009
Brookvale Manor Nursing Home: Christmas Eve at 11am.
Christmas Eve Vigil Mass: 9pm.
Christmas Day: 10am. & 12 noon
The 10 o’clock Mass will be broadcast live on Mid-West Radio.
No wonder Ireland has a reputation all over the world for being heavy drinking , foul mouthed fighters.
We had a Budget in the middle of the worst financial crisis the country has seen - there millions of Euros in cuts to wages and cuts to welfare benefits. Petrol prices rose - but the price of booze was cut by as much as €2.80 for a bottle of spirits . Sure - we can all get drunk and to hell with it. Maybe that is what Brian Cowen wants?
Then today we get a Green TD - (Member of Parliament to all you non Irish ) - Paul Gogarty - who uses foul abusive language in a Dail debate about the cuts . He said to a Labour member - F**K YOU - loud and clear , twice. It was going out live on TV too . What a fine example for a member of the government to set to the people of Ireland. Then again - look at Berti Aherne and Charlie Haughey - hardly good examples either. Don’t mention the paedophile priests.
He should be sacked - the 100k a year salary could be better spent on something else. A few dozen others should go too - we have too many TDs.. See clip on YouTube
Is there any hope for this country? The poor will drink themselves to death on the dole while the rich laugh at them and the elected members argue and curse but do nothing useful.
The Church just stand by , take our money and try and hide their priest’s crimes like child abuse and rape.
Now we have teachers and other public sector workers threatening strikes again. They earn more than their equivalents in the UK and do less work. The teachers will probably say we have a better education system here - but no one publishes any exam results and hardly any schools or teachers are inspected or reviewed regularly (if at all)
We have loads of nurses but for some reason the health service is still in a mess because of poor management and the corrupt two tier system that allows consultants to be paid by the government do private work instead of public.
Time for a change - or time to leave ?
The press seem to keep giving that deluded fraud - Joe Coleman free publicity - and they really give him an easy ride - no hard questions or ridicule.
He is the man whose predictions of an “apparition” in Knock of the Virgin Mary resulted in thousands of people turning up (twice). People claimed afterwards to have seen the sun “dancing” - but not a lot else. Video “evidence” on Youtube is nothing more than sun glare and clouds.
In today’s Irish Times there was an article by PATSY McGARRY “Religious Affairs Correspondent” about Joe Coleman .
If we are to believe Joe Coleman - he is a man with a wife and 4 kids who lives on Invalidity Benefit. He says he doesn’t charge anything for his “healing sessions” - yet he can afford a holiday to Egypt 4 years ago (where he says he saw Jesus by the way!) and trips to Medjugorje.
There are posts on boards.ie by supporters/friends of Joe Coleman who admit he charges €60 for a healing session. (You get an hour) . These posts were as recent as June and July 2009.
One person said he charged €150 for 3 people at a time (nice of him to give bit of a discount!).
He’s been running his so called” clinic” since 2004 and according to a supporter on Boards.ie
“you have to go to him, usually. or come and collect him and will go to a house if there is a few people to see him 4-5. He does not drive himself. i think he is very good. Some times he is busy , and you would have to wait a few days , or more to see him.”
If he was doing - as little as 20 “readings” a week at sixty euro a go - that’s €1200 a week or about sixty grand a year. On top of the Invalidity - no wonder he can afford holidays in Egypt!
It must be all Ok though - because he says he has 2 (not 1) signed certificates for attending a spiritual healing course ( signed by a Rev Chala Saleda). You try looking for Chala Saleda on Google - you won’t find much .
Joe Coleman is also quoted in the Irish Times as saying he has “very many spirit guides – Indian, Buddhist, St Joseph, St Martin, Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, who are always in contact before an apparition”.
This man sounds a bit mixed up to me - but he is clever enough to have all the options covered for all types of believers / crackpots
He also said in the article that it was “not a Catholic religion thing. It is about the spirit. We come from the spirit and go home to the spirit”
He also apparently does Tarot Card Readings - which is definitely forbidden by the Catholic Church and probably most Christian churches
He was also quoted in 2007 as saying “The lost city of Atlantis will rise in 2012″. I wonder who told him that ? Bhudda, Our Lady or Mother Teresa?
He will probably be predicting all sorts of things in the next few months - the horrible thing is that people will take notice of him and the press and RTE seem to just print his ramblings as if they are facts.
Read more about Joe Coleman Here
and more here
Would you believe this man? This is Keith Henderson one of the two men who claim to have had visions of the Virgin Mary in Knock . Keith Henderson is a sidekick of Joe Coleman who is also pictured below. I know what I’d think if this man told me he was seeing things…..he probably needs medical help.
Pictures taken from http://www.irishtimes.com/indepth/slideshows/knock-apparition-virgin-mary/
where you can see more of the crazy activity at knock on 31st October 2009.
Nothing really happened apart from a few thousand crazy people running around and looking at the sun.
I looked at the sun for no more than 2 seconds that day near Ballyhaunis - and I could see circles ringed in blue/green for minutes afterwards. It was no miracle - just my eyes being nearly blinded by looking at the bloody sun.
Read an eye witness report from Knock here http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1102/1224257902496.html
Great quote in there from some young girl when they thought something was happening outside “She’s outside. F*** ya! We shudda stayed outside- ”
It’s all great for the tourist industry in Knock though. Or is it ?
The Church are probably getting worried - maybe all this rubbish about visions and apparitions will make people think that maybe the original apparitions might have been just as silly as these new ones.
This is the other half of the comedy duo - Joe Coleman shedding a tear in Knock on Saturday.
If you heard Joe Coleman talking on the Joe Duffy show on RTE - you wouldn’t think there was much in the way of holiness about him. He is an arrogant , lying, welfare fiddling, offensive, rude, ignorant man - and Joe Duffy hardly even challenged him.
This is a video of what really happened in Knock on October 11th. Apparition , Sun Dancing , Visions ? Nothing happened. Expect more of the same today.
Great news for the local hotels and B&Bs - not a vacancy within 30 miles of Knock tonight.
I wonder if Joseph Coleman has any relatives in the B&B trade?
The stalls in Knock selling cheap “made in China” tat will do a roaring trade. Expect a few fireworks too .
Another crazy prediction by Joe Coleman that the Virgin Mary will show up in Knock on Halloween. What a day to choose? This story is going all over the world and making a laughing stock of Ireland.
This is a man who has previously predicted that the Lost city of Atlantis will rise in 2012.!
He trys to make out he is humble - but it sems he is more than media savvy and is used to getting publicity in the media - he even once had his own radio show in 2007 on Dublin’s 96FM. See Here
He also seems to have a website to do with some more alleged visions of the Virgin Mary in Donegal. There is a testimonial section on the site - but there is only one testimonial on it from a 10 year old boy ! Maybe we should give him a call on his mobile to see what else he has in store for us all.
Claiming to see the Virgin Mary is bad enough - but he makes it even worse by saying she turns into Padre Pio as well ! What the hell is going on there?
If someone stood up in O’Connell Street Dublin or in Ballyhaunis and say they’d seen the Virgin Mary - people would ignore them and think they were either drunk or crazy . But he is not being ignored. Why is that? . Maybe this article is making it worse - but the reports in the papers are just being too nice to him.
At least the Catholic church has made a statement about it now - Archbishop Michael Neary issued a statment which included lines like “It is not healthy, does not give glory to God and certainly is not good witness to the faith to be looking for extraordinary phenomena. For this reason such events are to be regretted rather than encouraged”
He also said - “Unfortunately, recent events at the shrine obscure this essential message - they risk misleading God’s people and undermining faith.”
The supposed picture evidence on YouTube mentioned by Joe Coleman is a joke - it is just badly taken pictures of the sun with glare.
On October 31st Knock will probably be busy - there will no doubt be plenty of Travellers (previously known as Gypsys or Tinkers) - who will flock to Knock. It’s a pity they don’t pay more attention to the teachings of Christ when they are fighting each other at weddings and funerals .
Maybe if people are so sure she will appear - they should have 
As someone said on Politics.ie “Now, do you think the mother of Jesus was going to appear in front of a bunch of assorted gobshytes, tinkers - with their tits and arses hanging out”
Why is anyone paying attention to this man? I blame RTE - apparently he first appeared on “the Afternoon Show ” - talking about this - why did they ask him to come on?
I see some other bloggers are a bit mad about Joe Coleman too.
Sunday, October 11, is the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the opening of St. Patrick’s church in Ballyhaunis.
The Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, will be joined by priests and nuns who have served in the parish. Ballyhaunis musician Noel Henry has composed music especially for the occasion and it will get its first performance at the Mass which commences at 3pm.
The three choirs of the parish will be performing together at the Mass - the Scoil Iosa Choir, Abbey Male Choir and the church choir. The prayers of the faithful will be read by students from Ballyhaunis Community School. Lecturer Dr Enda Lyons will give the homily on the day.
Afterwards, all are invited to enjoy refreshments in the Parochial Hall.
There will not be the usual Mass at 12 noon on Sunday next. However, there will be a 10am Mass.
It could be busy on the roads on Sunday if there are people heading for Knock too for the predicted apparition by some clairvoyant from Ballyfermot.
A man who claims to be a clairvoyant and healer (apparently charging €60 a sitting) has forecast that the Virgin Mary will appear in Knock this Sunday at 3pm. Ballyfermot man - Joe Coleman is also linked to alleged visionsof the Virgin Mary in Donegal (latest one supposedly on the eve of the Lisbon referendum) He has a website that lists testimonials about these Dungloe visions - at the moment there is a grand total of 1 testimonial from a 10 year old boy! . (Hardly a reliable source?)
The only named witness to the latest Dungloe vision is this boys father (quoted in the Irish Independent) . On local Midwest Radio - Joe Coleman said that he didn’t know the people who witnessed the latest apparition !
The Dungloe parish priest, Father Seamus Meehan, was quoted as saying “ I would be kind of sceptical about it myself”
Many people will probably flock to Knock when they hear this rumour - the shops and cafes will love this Joe Coleman man. They will be able to sell more overpriced tat and bad food to gullible “pilgrims”. The Church will let it happen - because a few more donations will be more than welcome. There will probably be a few people who will think they saw something. If someone is in the frame of mind to see a vision then they are more likely to think they have seen one.
Paddy Power are even taking bets on it - I wonder if Joe Coleman has a few Euro on Knock?
Click below to see the latest odds ( When you get to Paddy Power click “Novelty Bets” on the left Menu)
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