Derryguile Mass Station, 1900
A 1900 photo of a mass station at Derryguile, Co. Laois. Derryguile is about one mile due south of Mountmellick. The spot used as a mass station had good shelter and was hidden from view.
Derryguile Mass Station, 1900
Derryguile Mass Station, 1900
A 1900 photo of a mass station at Derryguile, Co. Laois. Derryguile is about one mile due south of Mountmellick. The spot used as a mass station had good shelter and was hidden from view.
Locations for mass stations were chosen according to how well they could hide the congregation. This old photo shows the spot where Mass was said in Derryguile, not far from Mountmellick. There were banks of clay in a corner of the field which provided shelter from the wind and kept the congregation out of sight. Some people would be chosen to keep watch for soldiers.
Here is what happened one day when the lookout was not paying attention:
"Just as the priest was in the middle of Mass the soldiers stole up without being seen. When they got to the edge of the crowd, the alarm was raised, and the people closed in between them and the priest. The soldiers could not get near enough to arrest him, and he slipped into the bog there in front carrying the chalice with him, and finished the Mass five miles away at the Mass-station of Capard."
The Shelters Mass Station
The mass station shown in this 1900 photo is in Ballinakill. The Shelters hid a small hut where a priest lived and people gathered for Mass.
The Shelters Mass Station
The Shelters Mass Station
The mass station shown in this 1900 photo is in Ballinakill. The Shelters hid a small hut where a priest lived and people gathered for Mass.
This photo shows the location of a mass station known as 'the Shelters'. It hid a hut where a priest lived. People gathered in the hut to attend Mass.
The priests' hut was on the edge of a dense forest. One day an important man got lost in the forest but eventually he found his way to the hut. The priest gave him shelter. In return for his kindness, the priest was given a thatched cottage and permission to celebrate mass freely.
Deadly Consequences
Mass stations needed to be well hidden, because the consequences of being caught taking part in mass were often deadly.
One priest, who stayed behind after his congregation had departed, suffered the following fate:
"His prayers over, he emerged from the Rath, in the direction of the adjacent road; but scarcely had he done so when he found himself face to face with a band of priest hunters, who had been sent upon his track. As might be expected they showed him no mercy. Ere he could turn and fly the ruffians had emptied their guns in his body, and he fell riddled with bullets."