Hundreds of school children could be confirmed en-masse at Kilkenny’s county GAA grounds this Autumn.
The plan is that children from the city parishes will be able to celebrate confirmation on Thursday, September 9th at Nowlan park if restrictions and Government advice allow it.
Bishop Denis Nulty is Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Ossory and he’s hopeful the idea can come to fruition.
He told KCLR News “I’m very grateful to the GAA in Kilkenny for their huge cooperation, I’m very grateful to the parishes and the schools and indeed the families, I think this is going to be important, the young people have done huge preparation, it’s a great moment in faith and I think it will be a very safe and memorable celebration because Nowlan Park we all know is a large place so it’s very easy to keep people in their pods, in their safe units but everything will be compliant with health and safety guidelines, we’ll see where we are for the 9th of September”.
Bishop Nulty adds “I’m also memorable that if we were to have local church ceremonies there would have to be many of them because there would be in small numbers so by having the larger centre to have the ceremony, it allows us to have the bigger number”.
It would be a first for Bishop Nulty too as he’s never carried out such a celebration on county grounds before, he says “The idea came on my journey from Carlow to Kilkenny wondering ‘How can we do it for quite a number of young people and keeping a safe distance, all the usual, ticking all the boxes’, passing by Nowlan Park the thought came ‘that could work'”.
He concludes “We’re not there yet but the plan is for September the ninth, let’s see what happens”.
