The Irish Times

The "only church in Christendom" to be named after a lay person is falling down. The Daniel O'Connell Memorial Church, named after the liberator who was born at Carhan, Caherciveen, Co Kerry, in 1775 will need a €5 million restoration programme if it is to be saved, a meeting in Caherciveen, has heard. It was "no ordinary church", said Leonard Hurley, one of those leading the restoration programme. Papal approval had to be sought for the building and in the late 1870s, Pope Leo XIII not only approved but presented a block of marble from the catacombs in Rome, to serve as a foundation stone. A recent report by a team of architects and engineers had outlined several works including the need to re-point all the granite stonework, to repair the windows and erect rainwater guttering.