Because God loves irony, as part of its COVID restrictions, the Irish government has made it criminal to celebrate Catholic Mass publicly. Many have remarked, half-jokingly, that Cromwell’s rule has been restored.
But in any case, Fr. Gerard Quirke decided to celebrate Easter Sunday Mass at dawn on a Mass rock at Achill, overlooking the Keem bay. Sites such as this rock were used as altars during the harshest suppression of the Mass under penal laws. And according to the Irish Times, this is the first time this Mass rock has been used as an altar in living memory. The site for this Mass was blessed with unusually beautiful weather, a choir of birdsong, and a flock of actual sheep. Here it is.
Dawn Mass from Keem Bay, Achill, from Blue Flag Media on Vimeo.