Dromcollogher Centenary: community chose resilience and community in aftermath of tragedy - Bishop John Fleming
Dromcollogher Centenary: community chose resilience and community in aftermath of tragedy - Bishop Fleming
Centenary Mass remembers 48 men, women and children who died in one of the greatest tragedies in modern Irish history
Sunday, 06 September 2026: The people of Dromcollogher responded to one of the greatest tragedies in modern Irish history not by allowing blame and recrimination to divide them, but by sowing the seeds of a resilient community built on forgiveness, understanding and care for one another, Bishop John Fleming has said.
The retired Bishop of Killala, a native of Co. Limerick, was speaking at the Centenary Mass in Dromcollogher last evening commemorating the 48 men, women and children who lost their lives in the Dromcollogher Cinema Fire of 1926. Bishop Fleming celebrated the Mass in the absence of Bishop of Limerick Brendan Leahy, who is abroad on Church duty.
Recalling the enormous scale of the tragedy, Bishop Fleming said Dromcollogher had a population of only around 500 at the time, meaning approximately one in ten members of the community died in the fire. One entire family was lost, while several other families suffered multiple bereavements.
The effects extended far beyond the 48 lives lost, he said, traumatising an entire parish and impacting families for generations.
"An entire parish community was traumatised in the horror of that dreadful night," Bishop Fleming said. "The one hundred years which have followed the tragedy have also seen the lives of many individuals and families, in varying degrees, deeply impacted by the events of that night."
He said the absence of the counselling and trauma supports available today made the suffering even more difficult to process, contributing to a silence that descended on the community.
While an investigation into the cause of the fire began immediately, Bishop Fleming said one of the most striking aspects of Dromcollogher's story was that blame did not ultimately come to define the community.
"It is to the credit of this community that the culture of finger pointing and blame never became a destructive reality among you," he said. "Feelings were not buried but forgiveness and understanding gradually began to take hold, and the seeds of a resilient community were sown. While the reality of the tragedy never went away, a healthy future began to emerge."
Bishop Fleming acknowledged that memories and perspectives on any tragedy will differ but said the story of the century since the fire demonstrates that community togetherness and resilience ultimately triumphed.
That resilience was evident, he said, in the decision within just 14 years of the tragedy to build a new Community Hall - remarkably including provision for a cinema. "A less resilient community than yours would never have considered a cinema within such a short time," Bishop Fleming said.
The hall went on to become a centre of community life, hosting films, cultural events, music and social gatherings. That same community spirit subsequently found expression in initiatives including the Dromcollogher Respite Care Centre and the Dromcollogher Community Housing Association, he remarked.
Bishop Fleming said the centenary also inevitably brings people back to one of the most difficult questions raised by human suffering: Why?
"Why does God allow innocent people, even children, to suffer? Why did He allow this tragedy to take place?" he asked.
For Christians, he said, there can be no easy or simplistic answer to the problem of suffering and evil. "The problem of evil cannot be answered simply. It is a mystery," Bishop Fleming said.
He said Christian faith does not pretend that suffering can be explained away, but instead points towards Christ himself and his suffering and death on the Cross. "In some mysterious way his death shows that suffering is part of our human condition. Our faith tells us, however, that it is also redemptive."
The Centenary commemorations also include the planting of 48 Irish oak trees, one for each of those who died in the fire. Bishop Fleming said the trees would provide a living memorial to those whose lives were lost and allow their memory to make a contribution to future generations.
"The planting of forty-eight Irish oak trees in memory of the victims of the fire will ensure that even in death the victims of this tragedy will make their contribution to resisting climate change for the world of the present and the future," he said. "They will continue to influence our future by their presence in nature."
Bishop Fleming also conveyed the solidarity of Bishop Brendan Leahy and the priests of the Diocese of Limerick with the people of Dromcollogher. Two weeks previously, Bishop Leahy celebrated Mass in Dromcollogher ahead of the Centenary and reflected on the role faith played in helping the community endure the aftermath of the disaster.
Bishop Leahy said faith was profoundly important to people as they struggled to come to terms with unimaginable loss and described it as "the Rock that provided inner stability at a time of great turmoil."
At the Centenary Mass, Bishop Fleming said the scale of the effort undertaken locally to commemorate the victims was itself evidence that the spirit of community which emerged from the tragedy remains strong a century later.
"The fire affected every family in this community. While views always differ, community togetherness as well as resilience predominated in the years that followed," he said. "This has endured down to the tremendous efforts of so many people in so many ways in bringing this Centenary about."
Concluding his homily, Bishop Fleming reflected on the Christian message of resurrection - that darkness and death do not have the final word. Recalling his own experience of visiting the former Dachau concentration camp and emerging from its museum into sunshine, birdsong and a gentle breeze, he said the experience brought home to him the Christian promise of life beyond death.
"We gather this evening, therefore, as a gentle breeze soothes our remembrance of this devastating fire and tragedy," Bishop Fleming said. "We gather to remember the past, to pray for the dead and look to the future with hope."