A historic church in Co Tyrone hopes to reopen to the public in the coming weeks after damage from Storm Éowyn caused water to leak into the building.
St Patrick’s Church, a listed building in the Dungannon parish, will still require months of repairs to replace 4ft high wrought iron elements of the roof which collapsed during the ferocious winds.
Videos shared online by the parish show a notable amount of water running down a pillar inside the church building.
Another video surveys the damage caused to the roof of the building, with tiles damaged or dislodged entirely, and the decorative iron railing blown off.
St Patrick’s has not been able to hold masses since the storm on January 24, with parishioners being directed to services in churches nearby in Edendork, Killyman and Clonmore
Damage caused to the historic building
A post on the parish of Dungannon’s Facebook page says: “As the church is a listed building, all repair and restoration work must be carried out whilst preserving the buildings historical character.”
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, parish priest, the Very Rev Dean Kevin Donaghy, explained that the church was first built in 1876, and had major renovations completed in the late 2000s.
Fr Donaghy said that during a “very intense stage of the storm” around 9am on January 24, “the ridge of the roof came down altogether”.
“In the church, similar to a lot of churches of that age and design, there’s a two or three feet high retaining wall, which the wrought iron collapsed down against,” he explained.
“If you’re at ground level and looking up, you would think those pieces of decorative wrought iron are about 18 inches high.
“In fact they’re over four feet, and they’re in five feet long sections that interlink, so when one moves, they all go.
“Each of those sections individually would be very heavy. The weight of that alone and the impact would have fractured the slates and punctured the other protective materials underneath.
“Fortunately, nothing penetrated right through to the interior of the church.”
The damage has caused water to get into the church however, and it will remained closed until the building can be made waterproof and safe for the general public.
Fr Donaghy has been with the church for eight years, and lives just across the road from the building.
He said that he and the parish have been very fortunate in the aftermath of the storm, as no one was in the building or nearby when the wrought iron collapsed.
Damage caused to the historic building
Moreover, the building’s insurance will cover the cost of the repairs to the listed building, which will include sourcing international help to replace the wrought iron decorations.
“There’s nowhere on the island of Ireland that does it. The two main places, apparently, that it comes out of these days is England and Poland.”
He further explained that the community has been very supportive in the days since the storm,
“Competent people have stepped forward very quickly, and identified that they knew one man who had worked on the building before,” the priest added.
“He knew quite a lot, and that’s been very helpful, recommending how to go forward.
“I believe there’s a good scarcity of scaffolding material around the place at the minute. We were fortunate within the parish to have a scaffolding contractor who came on site almost right away with a substantial team of skilled and competent people.”
“The scaffolding has now been erected completely as far as we need.”
Masses are taking place in the other three churches of the parish, in St Malachy’s Church, Edendork; St Brigid’s Chapel, Killyman, and Sacred Heart, Clonmore.
The parish office remains open and is able to provide direction to any parishioners with concerns.