"The
station" is a relic of Penal
Times, when Mass was not
celebrated in public but in
some private house and very
often in a barn or even
under open air. Mass Rocks
commemorate these open-air
places of worship today and
we have our own Mass Rock on
the South Lake Road.
Even
when the Penal Laws were
relaxed and Catholicism
emerged into the open after
1830, the custom of saying
Mass in private houses
continued for various
reasons. In many rural
areas, isolation was the key
problem and there was also
the very practical problem
that few Churches were
available for worship in the
years immediately after
Emancipation.
Rev.
J.Cunnane's writing in The
Furrow in 1968 remarks
that:" The reason for
preserving the custom of
"the stations"was that when
the Irish Church emerged
from persecution at the
beginning of the nineteenth
century it found itself
fixed with the problem of a
lack of Church buildings and
of priests to serve a
rapidly growing population.
Many people among the old
and sick, found themselves
at great distances from the
Church. In very large areas
lack of roads and transport
made the problem of Mass
attendance and the
Sacraments an acute one for
great numbers. To overcome
these difficulties the
parish clergy developed the
system known in Ireland
as:'The Stations'".By
arrangement with the people,
the priests twice a year
visited each townland,
offering Mass and hearing
confessions in one of the
houses - each house was
expected "to take The
Station in it's turn"