Tickets please!

Apparently, there is a Mass in Ireland which is so popular that, for Christmas, the parish has decided to make it an "all ticket" affair.

It will be at Christmas, and is described as a "Family Mass" in the parish of St. Maur, in the town of Rush, in north County Dublin.

Rush used to be a village, and now it is a growing dormitory town about 18 miles north of Dublin city centre. If you ever want to go there, just go to www.dublinbus.ie and search for the schedule for route 33.

This story broke on Monday on RTE' Radio One's Liveline programme.

If you go to here, scroll down the page to the Listen Back point and click on Monday. The item starts about four and a half minutes into the programme.

News story from Catholic Ireland website.

Photos of the church itself are available from the architects' website.

And here is something else from another online newspaper, including a quote from the curate.

One thing I do know about this church is that it is next door to another one which is about a hundred years older; I can't remember the full story, but the decision was made to build a new one, I think partly because of population growth, partly because of the state of the original church; in fact, I haven't been in that town for years, and I don't even know for certain if the old church is still standing.

Now I have never been at this Family Mass, so I can't pass judgement; but reference to "Irish dancing" taking place makes me a little nervous.