The Jehovah’s Witness community in Tullamore in the Irish midlands is an early example of increased religious diversity in an Irish town.
It dates back about half a century, and the late Frank Lowbridge and his wife Sissie will be remembered for their role in its development.
The Jehovah’s Witness community started in the late 60s
The Jehovah’s Witnesses were the first major religious group in Tullamore outside of the ‘four main churches’ i.e. Catholic, Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Methodist.
I am grateful to their daughter Frances Boland for this account of the congregation’s history: “In the late 60s, a Catholic woman from Clara named May Hiney became a Jehovah’s Witness via contact with a family member in London who was a Witness. Her daughter Brigid Dunne soon followed.” (Clara is a place seven miles from Tullamore, in the north of County Offaly).
Frances also recalls David and Carol Thorman, a young UK couple who moved to the area on behalf of the Witnesses to give support and start spreading the gospel, but they found it difficult to find accommodation, due to clerical opposition to a different Christian religion.
A man from Clara came to the rescue and allowed them to park a caravan on his property, Frances adds, and later a Church of Ireland man, David Finnamore, rented them a two room house in the Meelaghans, where meetings were held until it was accidentally burnt down in the 1980s.
Frank Lowbridge was the first man from Tullamore to join, in 1972, and his wife Sissie followed a few years later. Their daughter recalls it was unheard of for an Irish Catholic to change religion in those days and praises her father as a man of courage for standing up to hostility, at a time when his children were attending a Catholic primary school.
Meetings were later held in the Lowbridge home in Clonminch and in the old ITGWU hall in Kilbride Street, but subsequently the late Philip Lumley, a Methodist lay preacher, came to their aid by leasing them a room over his business behind the Brewery Tap.
One of the congregation was a wheelchair user who was carried up and down narrow stairs twice weekly.
Later on volunteers built a church
As numbers grew, Frank Lowbridge donated land adjacent to his home to build a Kingdom Hall, and the work was mainly carried out on a voluntary basis by Witnesses. It was completed in 1984 and extended three years later.
In September 2017, Witnesses moved into the current Kingdom Hall at Collins Lane, built over three months, again on a voluntary basis, with only the tarmac and preparatory ground work done by contractors.
Apart from the Witnesses, there has been little success until recently by other religious groups which sought converts locally – the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) had two missionaries in the town in early 1981 but they did not stay long, and forays by the Hare Krishnas were even briefer.
Slowly the Christian religious scene became more diverse
In the last three decades, and more particularly in the past 20 years, the local religious scene has become more diverse, with the emergence of a wide range of Christian churches.
While some of them are mainly associated with immigrant communities, particularly from Africa (such as the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Christ Apostolic Church, New Life Kingdom Fellowship, Mountains of Fire and Miracles Ministry, Celestial Church of Christ, etc.), others have won converts among the indigenous population.
Probably the first in the latter category was the Tullamore Bible Church, founded nearly 30 years ago by the American-born Pastor Mark Mandarano, followed by Pastor Chris Stoll.
There is also the Cornerstone Slieve Bloom Church, established by Pastors Gavin and Wendy von Mollendorff from South Africa, and the Abundant Life Church, whose pastor, Nathan Nicholson, is a native of Tullamore. Sadly, Pastor Gavin died recently at the age of 47.
Christ Apostolic Church worshipped initially in the local Rugby Club and then in premises in an industrial park, made available by the late Johnny Flanagan, a prominent local businessman. Its first pastor was Michael Esho, followed by Victor Sodimu, and its flock mainly came from the Nigerian community.
The Bahá’i faith also had a presence
The Bahá’i faith, a religion that has its roots in Iran and the Middle East and which advocates interfaith cooperation and dialogue, has had a presence in Tullamore for many decades, the first members there having been Derry and Anne O’Malley, who later returned to Limerick. Numbers ebbed and flowed as some of those involved moved away, but my information is that there are still a few followers of the faith there, who attend meetings in Athlone.
I do recall Bahá’i representatives taking part in interfaith events on two occasions, once in Unity Hall in 1989 and later over a health food shop run at the time by Eileen Lawrence in O’Connor Square.
A slow growing Muslim community
The Muslim community in Tullamore has also experienced significant growth. In my youth, the only Muslims in the area were a few doctors in the hospital and their families, but later others came to open restaurants and shops. Initially, they were almost entirely from Pakistan, but later were joined by people from many other parts of the world, including refugees from Afghanistan and Syria.
The initial involvement of a Muslim representative in an interfaith service in 1989 was at the behest of a local organisation called the One World Group, which has since ceased to exist, which focused on global development issues. The Muslim population is mainly Sunni.
I recall covering a number of Eid celebrations hosted by the community for the Offaly Express. I recall the presence of a number of guests from the wider community, including politicians such as Brian Cowen and Tom Parlon, Garda representatives such as the now-retired immigration officer Tom Cunningham, Father Shane Crombie and Sister Genevieve Hassey from the local Catholic parish.
St Mary’s Youth and Community Centre has also been used by the Muslim community for some of its events in recent years, while the town has had a mosque for many years now.
In more recent years, good work on integration was done by Rev William Hayes of Tullamore Presbyterian Church in the Tullamore Welcome Centre, which began in 2013 with work with the Hazara refugees from Afghanistan.
Other belief systems are present, but challenges remain
Tullamore also has, of course, a number of followers of Wiccan and other ‘new age’ spiritualities.
The increased religious diversity, of course, also coincides with a marked growth in the non-religious population. At the most recent census, this stands at over 14% of the Republic’s population, though Offaly has one of the highest Catholic percentages at 79%:
Looking to the future, the challenges facing faith groups are considerable, but their record shows they are able for them, and it is encouraging to see how they are working together on issues like helping the homeless and victims of domestic violence and people trafficking.
The ongoing wars in many parts of the world, from Ukraine and Gaza to Myanmar, create obvious challenges when it comes to interfaith dialogue, while recent events such as the horrific terrorist attack on a Manchester synagogue and the arson attack on the Peacehaven mosque, make such co-operation all the more vital. We have seen heartening signs of co-operation between Jewish, Muslim and Christian groups in the wake of the Crumpsall atrocity.
