Thousands expected to flock to Galway Cathedral for Solemn Novena
By Dan Maher
The annual Solemn Novena will take place at Galway Cathedral from 2 February and will run for nine days.
The festival, now in its 42nd year, will showcase an array of guest speakers who are at different stages in their faith.
Helena O’Shea, operations manager for Galway Cathedral, expressed her excitement at the celebration taking place again this year.
“A novena is nine days of prayer, you can do this at home or you can come to something like this that has Mass and talks every day.
“There really is something for everyone, regardless of what stage you’re at in your faith.
“Every evening after the 7.30pm Mass there is a guided holy hour by candlelight, you don’t need to stay for the whole thing, you can just drop in.”
As well as Mass, prayer and confession, the guest speakers will share experiences ranging from that of a bereaved parent, to a man who struggled with addiction, and another who works in ministries with young people.
“People will come in to speak to different aspects of the faith and share their experiences and stories.
“Keith Kelly is our speaker on day eight, he was a bit lost and struggled with addiction and found his way out, his faith was a huge part of that, he has a really powerful story to tell.
“John Buckley is another speaker, his daughter was murdered in 2015, he will speak about grieving as a parent and the solace and support he found in his faith.”
Ms O’Shea also pays tribute to those who have turned up to the celebration year-on-year, and are quite proud of their achievement.
“They’ll come up and say hello to you, they’ll let you know that they’ve been here every year, there are people who absolutely love the novena and will be here every day.”
With big crowds expected, one issue to contend with will be parking at Galway Cathedral, usually taken up by university students or local workers.
“It’s definitely going to be a huge crowd, you can never really tell, but in the thousands anyway.
“The main issue is with people who usually park here for work or college, the car park will be reserved purely for people attending the novena.
“People who usually park here might have to find somewhere else.
“We have a team who will look after the car park during the novena.”
With her vast experience organising this festival, she shared her favourite part of the Novena.
“A big part of the Novena is that people in different parts of the church can write their own prayers.
“My favourite part of the Novena is that we read out some of the petitions from the day before and there’s thanksgiving as well.
“People often come up to us and thank us for reading their prayers.”
With anticipation building for this year’s Solemn Novena, people of all backgrounds will have a space to explore their faith in this historic occasion, in an even more historic cathedral.
