Mercy in the Mall

There was a surprise in store for people doing their Christmas shopping at a mall in the West of Ireland this year. Some 20 priests took turns to hear confessions in the corridors of the
Skycourt Shopping Centre, in Shannon, on 8 December. By the end of day, queues of people were waiting at four locations in the mall, said Fr Tom Ryan, the parish priest who came up with the idea. “It’s not obtrusive,”

Fr Arnold Rosney told us. “People stop and say ‘Ah, this is what you are doing.’ Then you offer a prayer card and they sit down and say ‘Actually, you know, I’ll have confession now’.”