An Irish Mass in Memory of All Souls
By JOHN KEANE
SEATTLE - A nice crowd was present at Seattle’s St. Patrick’s Church for the celebration of the annual Mass in Gaelic in memory of those members of Seattle’s Irish community who died in the past year. Three priests concelebrated, with Hugh Duffy SJ, a Dubliner who teaches at Seattle University, being the main celebrant.
Concelebrating with him were Father John Madigan from County Limerick who played Gaelic football with the Seattle Gaels in the early 1980s, and Father Bill Treacy from County Laois who came to the United States as a young priest in 1945.
Mary Kelly had organized a nine person choir that beautifully led the singing of all the hymns in Irish, plus a solo by Cait Callen, and the choir was accompanied by musicians Laura Ash on the piano, Bruce Singleton on the uilleann pipes, and Peter Berry on Celtic harp.
Lectors were Richard Murphy and Gary Ingle. Everything was in the Irish language with the exception of the homily and the names of 42 deceased community members which were read aloud. Thanks to Melissa Estelle and Nanci Spieker who organized everything else including the social hour afterwards.
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