*Photograph: Rachel Lyons Media
ST MARY’s Church in Ruan had its timber spire restored this week as part of a major milestone in its refurbishment.
Sixteen months on from the lightning strike at St Mary’s Church in Ruan which saw the timber spire go on fire and crash to the ground, it has now finally been restored.
Work continues on the refurbishment of the church which is located in the heart of the village.
Locals said at the time of the December 2024 lightning strike that “the spire saved the village really because it is the highest part of the village, lightning always hits the highest part so if it didn’t it would have hit somewhere else”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo on Wednesday morning, Fr Pat O’Neill who is assistant priest in the parishes of Ruan, Dysart, Crusheen, Corofin and Tubber welcomed the progress with the refurbishment. “Thanks be to God we have the timber spire up now, everybody is delighted to see it happening. People are over the moon that things are happening and beginning to take shape”.
A deadline of the end of May has been set for engineers and construction personnel for the completion of the project. A wedding is to be held at St Mary’s Church at the end of next month with Fr O’Neill informing personnel working on the refurbishment that all scaffolding needs to be removed and the project completed by then.
Fr O’Neill admitted that the wait to complete the refurbishment has “been frustrating” and that the project has been delayed by “a huge amount of bureaucracy”.
Conservation architects and heritage experts are understood to have been among the factors for the slow pace of work due to the historical nature of the church which was officially opened in 1912, along with the insurance hurdles.
“It is coming up a year and half since it went on fire and it is only now that we got the timber work of the spire in place,” Fr O’Neill noted. “It is easy to know why the Children’s Hospital is taking so long to get built with so much bureaucracy”.
As they’ve played the waiting game, mass and devotion of the people of Ruan to their faith hasn’t been interrupted. “There was a never a day when we didn’t get to use the church,” Fr O’Neill stated.
Last June, The Clare Echo reported on the discovery of a 104 year old piece of wainscoting within the church. Signed by Kilrush carpenters Simon Cusack and James Morrissey in 1911, the piece of timber was previously found by Ruan’s John Kirwan when the church was wired for the first time in 1969. Another tradesman was added to the tale when Connolly native Shane Meehan, an electrician based out of Ennis rediscovered the historic piece of wainscoting which has since been removed from the church for safekeeping and was wrapped in what else but a copy of The Clare Echo.
