Church in Cork city centre to close this year

A Catholic church in Cork city centre that was once visited by Pope Leo is set to close later this year.

St Augustine’s Church, which is on the corner of Washington St and Grand Parade, has been a part of spiritual life in the city for more than 80 years.

The church is set to close permanently in the coming months, with parishioners to be informed this weekend.

The church is owned and run by the Augustinian friars, with the consent of the diocese of Cork and Ross.

A spokesperson for the Augustinian friars in Cork told The Echo they would be making no comment, but that a statement would be issued at Masses in the church on Saturday and Sunday.

A spokesperson for the diocese said the future of the church is primarily a matter for the order.

It is understood that the likely closure of St Augustine’s stems from a continued decline in vocations to the priesthood.

The church, which was erected in 1942 and extended 30 years later, was built on the site of an earlier chapel dating back to 1872. The adjoining priory was built in 1982.

The Augustinian friars have had a presence in Cork dating back as far as the late 13th century, when they founded Red Abbey in the South Parish. The ruin of the old medieval belfry tower still stands on the site.

The friars left Cork in the 17th century in the wake of the Reformation, returning a century later to what is now St Augustine’s Street.

Pope Leo XIV visited the Augustinian church two decades ago, when he was Bishop Robert Prevost, prior general of the Order of St Augustine, the global head of the order.

The then bishop paid a visit to the Augustinian friars in Cork in 2007.

In the 1950s and 1960s, St Augustine’s had a parish hall at the back of the church, and in 1959 two young schoolboys from McCurtain St played there.

Billed as the Gallagher Brothers, 11-year-old Rory and his nine-year-old brother Donal sang Everly Brothers numbers — and promptly ran out of material.

Last year, Donal Gallagher recalled the night he was sacked by his brother, who would one day become a world-famous musician, in St Augustine’s Hall.

“We’d been well received, the crowd wanted more, so Rory said, ‘Do your party piece’. At home I’d sing The Scottish Soldier. I was born in Derry, so I could do the Scottish accent,” he said.

“So, I sang it, and Rory started strumming away behind me. But after the first verse, I said, ‘Rory, there’s no guitar on it’. And he said, ‘Just get on with it’. So, I did.

“The mums and dads probably loved it, but Rory was so disgusted with me. Backstage afterwards, I was immediately fired. As far as Rory was concerned, I’d been unprofessional: You’d never row on stage, you’d never behave like that in front of the audience,” Donal said.

“I was probably nine, and he was 11. After that, he taught me the guitar. He always encouraged me, but it was like having a brother who’s an athlete and you can’t keep up. He never let me grace the stage with him again!”