By Sean Ryan - 08 August, 2015
New Ross Carmelite Community
A community in Co Wexford has rallied behind its local Carmelite monastery as it prepares to celebrate 200 years in the town.
Numerous fundraising initiatives have already taken place in New Ross and donations have raised over €30,000 for the Carmelite Sisters so far.
Next year will mark the bicentenary of the Sisters presence in New Ross (1816 – 2016) and the community has come together to provide them with a heating system ahead of the winter months.
According to the chairperson of ‘The Friends of the Carmelites in New Ross’, Jean Tyrell, “The fact that €30,000 and counting has been raised is testament to the generosity of local people.”
However, funding is still needed to cover the cost of replacing the old boiler and pumps with the new ones.
The money raised so far has come through a variety of local sources and local fundraising activities including a night at the dogs, Supervalu & Tesco bag pack, and a ladies mini marathon.
Donations have also come from ordinary individuals who “call up to the monastery hallway door to give what they can spare or post their donations to the monastery”.
Speaking about the fundraising effort to date Jean Tyrell commented, “We have received a little over half of the total required. Our initial target for fundraising was a general and uncosted one. Subsequently we decided to conduct a full assessment of the entire heating system rather than do a piecemeal job.”
Based on that a detailed costed job spec was done and this revised programme of work amounted to over €60,000.
Other areas of the monastery which the committee are hoping to improve are its avenue which has suffered the effects of years of traffic and weathering leaving it pockmarked with pot holes.
The committee are also hoping to purchase new gates for the entrance to the monastery with the currently gates badly rusted with time.
