There was a mission in Claregalway Parish in 1942. It started on the 14th June and finished on the 28th June. There were two Jesuit Priests, Fr Paul O’Flanagan and Fr Michael Mallin. Fr Mallin was a son of Michael Mallin the 1916 leader who was executed after the Easter Rising. The first Mass each morning was at 7am and the second at 9am. The Rosary, Benediction and a sermon was at 7 o’clock each evening and the Church would be packed. The Rosary was always said in Irish.
Towards the end of the mission, the Missioners went around to the old people who were not able to come. The Parish Priest had no car so the Missioner Priest had to borrow a bicycle and the Mass Servers showed them where to go.
The people mostly walked to Mass at the time. A few had bicycles and the people from Carnmore came by horse and sidecar. There would be about twenty horses tied to the wall across from the Church during the mission. There was just one collection at the end of the mission.
I am sure these memories are shared by many of the older generation in the Parish.
