St. Gerard’s

In 1951 a new foundation was opened on the Antrim Road and called St. Gerard’s and the church of the same name was opened and dedicated in December 1956.  In 1962 a separate mission house was opened to accommodate St. Gerard’s community.  On 15th August 1969 St. Gerard’s community assumed responsibility for a new parish carved from the existing parish of Whitehouse.

St. Clement’s

In 1961 the retreat house at Ardglass, Co. Down (1947-1961) was closed and the enclosed retreat apostolate was transferred to a new retreat house, under the patronage of St. Clement, on the Antrim Road.  The retreat house shares the same grounds as St. Gerard’s.  Following the story of St. Gerard's please see the notice about the closure of St. Clement's Retreat House.

The  Story  of  Saint  Gerard's

Underneath the face of Cavehill with its historic MacArt's fort and famous caves there lies a heavily wooded property of some 37 acres that stretches down the Antrim Road.  In 1951 the owner of this property Major Addley, a North of Ireland Protestant, died.  His widow decided to return to her native England and so put the property up for sale.  The solicitor, Frank Kerr, father of our confrere Father Hugo, informed the Rector of Clonard, Fr Gerard McDonnell, of this fact.  It was good news for the Rector as he was anxious to have another foundation in Belfast, which would serve as a Retreat House or juvenate for the Six Counties.

The Provincial, Father Michael Curran, always ambitious to found, inspected the site and was pleased with it.  He told Father McDonnell to approach Bishop Mageean for permission to buy the property with the intention of using it for:

(a) a new church on the front of the Antrim Road,

(b) a monastery for a community that would do some mission
               work and serve the church,

(c) a Retreat House at the residence of Major Addley.

The Bishop had long wished for a Catholic Church on the front of the Antrim Road.  He and his Chapter gave the required permission and the property was purchased for £14,000.  On September 29th, the Addley family left for England and on the same day the Redemptorists took possession.  The house formerly called "Ben Edan" was re-named St. Gerard's and made an adopted child of Clonard.

On October 1st, Father McDonnell said the first Mass in St. Gerard's and launched a well-planned fund-raising campaign directed towards building a new church.  A committee of 100 men was organised with J. B. Kennedy as president and John McGlade as chairman.  Many men prominent in working for the Mater Hospital "Y.P." Pools joined and were a great help.  They organised a carnival at the new site and made £4,000.  They started a ‘brick campaign’.  “Be a brick, give a brick” at one guinea (twenty one shillings) to the “Clonard Appeal for St. Gerard's”.  Within six months or so some £30,000 was collected.  A ‘brick office’ was opened in Clonard Street and staffed by generous volunteers.

Because of the building restrictions after World War II the intention was to build a temporary chapel and the necessary steel girders were acquired.  Then the restrictions were unexpectedly removed.  So the committee decided that a permanent church should be built.  Despite an appeal from Fr McDonnell and even though plans for a permanent church had been made, Fr Curran insisted that a temporary church should be built.  Fr McDonnell thereupon asked to be relieved of the Rectorship of Clonard at the forthcoming nominations.  This request was granted and Fr McDonnell was made Rector of Marianella.  At the same time, September 1953, Fr James Reynolds was appointed Superior of St. Gerard's, which was made independent of Clonard, and sent to Belfast with the plans for a permanent church.

Some time afterwards when in Rome Fr Gerard McDonnell had an interview with Fr General Gaudreau.  The latter remarked that he had been told by several Irish confreres that the priests of Belfast were generally opposed to the new Redemptorist foundation and to his - Fr McDonnell's - collecting for it.  The latter said that this was untrue and that he knew of only one priest who complained to the Bishop about the collecting and that there was scarcely any opposition from the priests.

Meanwhile the building of St. Gerard's church was begun and went slowly ahead, directed by Fr James Reynolds. He was a good fund-raiser and being completely independent of Clonard was able to devise his own inimitable ways of raising money.  The excavations and drainage of the site were entrusted to Eastwood's.  They had a difficult job to do.  The new church had to be built on concrete piles some of which go down as much as forty feet.  Meantime a hut served as a temporary chapel and was attended by a small number of people.  Here the Perpetual Novena was begun on November 23rd, 1952 and attended by about forty people.

Solemn Blessing

The great day finally arrived when the completed church of St. Gerard's was solemnly blessed by Bishop Mageean.  It was Sunday, December 9th, 1956.  After the dedication ceremony the Bishop presided at Solemn High Mass celebrated by Fr Charles McNiffe, Rector of Clonard.  The sermon was preached by Fr James Cleary.  The new church was built at a cost of £100,000 on a site overlooking Belfast Lough.  The architect was J. J. Brennan, the contractors P. & F. McDonnell.  The church of St. Gerard has many features worthy of comment.  The interested reader will find them described in the Brochure that was published for the opening.

Pioneering days were difficult.  Attendance was slow to increase, partly because of the severe weather of the first winter.  This made the journey from Major Addley's house to the church quite an ordeal at times for the confreres.  So in October 1957 they got permission for the luxury of a car.  An 1939 Armstrong Sidley was purchased, but its use was strictly limited to the hill road.