Catholic Church pair to walk 280km for CoI

Two members of the Star of the Sea Catholic Church, Eamonn O’Connor and Mickey McKevitt, set off on their long walk from Rostrevor tomorrow morning to help ‘raise the roof’ on Kilbroney Church.

The walk will begin from the Church of Ireland, Rostrevor and then Mr O’Connor and Mr McKevitt will be taken by boat across Carlingford Lough and walk on to Dundalk and then onwards to Croagh Patrick.

They hope to finish their strenous walk by climbing Croagh Patrick on Saturday, May 7 and, in the course of this, raise much needed funds for the roof repairs.

Interestingly both men have taken time off work and are doing this walk totally at their own expense.

When asked about the walking project and why they were doing it, they replied: “We felt it was the natural thing to do.”

The walk will take the two local men some 280 kilometres east to west across the width of Ireland.

Kilbroney Parish Church, built in 1821, urgently needs a new roof and requires structural repairs.

The estimated cost of this and other essential work is £230,000.

Kilbroney is only one of 16 ringing towers in Northern Ireland. It also has a set of 14 hand bells which were recently refurbished.