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'Record numbers' attend Ash Wednesday drive thru in Galway church

Meanwhile, Archbishop Eamon Martin has launched a Twitter and Instagram campaign for Lent.

A CHURCH IN Galway that offers a “drive thru” service for people to get their ashes on Ash Wednesday has said that it’s had record numbers of attendees this year.

The innovative service at St Patrick’s Church, Glenamaddy aims to cater for people who are too busy to stop in. The aim is that they would get their ashes on their morning run, as the service is offered from 8am to 9.30am.

This is the second year the service has been on offer. The church said on its Facebook that this year it received “record numbers” attending.

Meanwhile, Archbishop Eamon Martin today launched a Twitter and Instagram #LiveLent initiative, for Lent 2019.

The initiative will involve short daily suggestions on Twitter and Instagram based on the Pope’s Lenten message. These will include suggestions on fasting, “eg, fasting from gossip, fasting from negativity online, and giving up certain foods for Lent”; and suggestions of charitable acts.

The Archbishop encouraged others taking part in Lent to share their progress online.

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    Mute Margate
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    Mar 6th 2019, 10:35 PM

    Great idea, well done for the new departure.

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    Mute Nosmo King
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    Mar 6th 2019, 10:52 PM

    @Margate: Too little, too late.

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    Mute Orla Smith
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    Mar 6th 2019, 11:43 PM

    @Margate: LOL! “I want the people of the town to see I got my ash, but effort level is below minimum.” Even in its rural heartland the Catholic Church dies with its last suffocating breath. Good riddence to the Roman cult that destroyed generations of our Irish people.

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    Mute OzMundy
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    Mar 7th 2019, 5:18 AM

    @Orla Smith: dont know why they bother with a drive through… just pop open the auld ash tray there away ya go…

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    Mute windbag
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    Mar 7th 2019, 8:22 AM

    @Nosmo King: I ate meat yesterday..

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    Mute Paul J. Redmond
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    Mar 6th 2019, 10:40 PM

    Drive through Catholicism. Only in Ireland! Would you like some absolution with your Ash? Large or regular?

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    Mute Arthur Pewty
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    Mar 6th 2019, 10:44 PM

    @Paul J. Redmond: confess an aul sin or two and you’ll be told to drive to the next window for your penance. And If you’re lucky the car in front of you may have prayed it forward.

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    Mute ÓDuibhír Abú
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    Mar 6th 2019, 10:45 PM

    @Paul J. Redmond: Is that the same, as the ‘Ash’ we had in our mouths when me Mother Burnt the Toast.!!

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    Mute Margate
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    Mar 6th 2019, 11:47 PM

    @Paul J. Redmond: Live, and Let live. Nobody forces you or others to partake.

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    Mute Michael Mcshane
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    Mar 7th 2019, 2:08 AM

    @Paul J. Redmond: do you have diet absolution ??? …just that my soul is heavey with the weight of mortal sin… :)

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    Mute Colm Naylor
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    Mar 6th 2019, 11:05 PM

    You’d think it was an episode of Fr.Ted

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    Mute Reg
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    Mar 6th 2019, 11:58 PM

    @Colm Naylor: If Dermot Morgan was still around I bet there’d be a Ash Wednesday drive through scene in a special episode of father ted….Bishop Ted’s Ash Wednesday!

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    Mute Emilio Butler
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    Mar 6th 2019, 10:54 PM

    Desperate times for the church require desperate, laughable measures

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    Mute TamuMassif2019
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    Mar 7th 2019, 12:46 AM
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    Mute Noel Falkhall
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    Mar 7th 2019, 12:05 AM

    Record numbers but no number mentioned so yet another thing you have to believe without seeing

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    Mute Sean Ryan
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    Mar 7th 2019, 1:00 AM

    @Noel Falkhall: exactly. If the previous number was 10 then 11 is a new record.

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    Mute yoser hughes
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    Mar 7th 2019, 6:54 AM

    @Noel Falkhall: Your not wrong there.

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    Mute davemck
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    Mar 6th 2019, 11:17 PM

    Wow. Also, record numbers attend Super Value pancake stations across the country on Tuesday. Jesus Lives!

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    Mute Derek Richardson
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    Mar 6th 2019, 10:44 PM

    Must have been all the scam taxi drivers looking for divine intervention

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    Mute Marc Power
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    Mar 6th 2019, 11:09 PM

    Load of mumbo jumbo
    Saddos

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    Mute Liam Mernagh
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    Mar 6th 2019, 11:45 PM

    @Marc Power: Aren’t you the happy fella then

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    Mute Robert Moles
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    Mar 7th 2019, 1:01 AM

    @Marc Power: you would have to worry about people who think they have to drive to a church to get ashes before work…or at any time for that matter

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    Mute Robert Moles
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    Mar 7th 2019, 1:07 AM

    @Marc Power: you would have to worry about these types of people…

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    Mute Rory Mahon
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    Mar 6th 2019, 11:15 PM

    When the church becomes a self parody

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    Mute Martin Meyler
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    Mar 6th 2019, 11:22 PM

    @Rory Mahon: no jump at all…

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    Mute DeeM
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    Mar 6th 2019, 11:02 PM

    Brilliant!!! I’m in Westport this week with work and I am staying in a hotel across from the very large church in the centre of the town. I swear I think the priest must have had a stamp of a Celtic cross dipped in ash and another “ash minister” was doing perfect large crosses on the foreheads of the congregation!! The church was really busy.. which was great to see!! I didn’t make it this morning…kind of glad really….my forehead would have been a bit of a distraction for potential clients….or then maybe it might have been a selling point….damn!!!

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    Mute Rob Cahill
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    Mar 7th 2019, 12:04 PM

    @DeeM: “The church was really busy.. which was great to see!!”

    Why was it great to see??

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    Mute Johannes Baader
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    Mar 6th 2019, 11:03 PM

    Drive through for Ash Wednesday… hahaha how mad can you get??? Seriously….

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    Mute Mandy Seiler
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    Mar 7th 2019, 12:05 AM

    Not even sure if i should laugh or cry. At the crackling speaker where someone named Salad (true story!) asks for your order … “Full hog, please?” – which should give you Body of Christ, a sip of wine and a smear of ash on the forehead once you produce your CC. Jesus’s, rolling with the times.

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    Mute Ter
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    Mar 7th 2019, 8:54 AM

    At least the kids are safe in the car with seatbelts

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    Mute yoser hughes
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    Mar 7th 2019, 6:52 AM

    They must have been giving fries with it.

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    Mute Paraic
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    Mar 6th 2019, 11:30 PM

    When are they bringing out an ashen crossed forehead skin for my fortnite avatar?

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    Mute Rob Cahill
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    Mar 7th 2019, 9:07 AM

    Record numbers.. 8 people this year beating the 6 from last year.. Reminds me f thwe confession box motorbike from D’Unbelievables. :P.. The church has become as funny.

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    Mute Mary
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    Mar 7th 2019, 12:25 PM

    Any chance of a Hash Wednesday drive thru?

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    Mute Peter Hinchliffe
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    Mar 7th 2019, 11:44 PM

    It’s the second year and they got record numbers…..ok

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