Parishioners in Donnybrook, Dublin 4, were the leading contributors last year to the second Share collection at weekend Masses in Dublin’s Catholic Archdiocese.
People attending Masses there in 2022 gave €71,089 to the collection, which funds overall administration in the archdiocese as well as supporting less well-off parishes. In total, the Catholic Archdiocese’s 197 parishes contributed €4.29 million to the share collection last year.
Contribution to the first collection, for the support of Dublin’s 390 priests, was more than three times higher at €14 million. Priests’ salaries in Dublin have been raised back to pre-Covid levels and range from between some €22,000 for a curate to about an average €38,000 annually for a parish priest. Generally, accommodation and other living expenses are provided.
It would be reasonable to assume that those parishes which contributed most to the second Share collections in 2022 were also among the highest contributors to the first collection for the support of priests. Whether that was three times higher — as is the overall figure — is unclear. No parish figures for the first collection in 2022 have been published by the archdiocese.
What is clear from the figures it published for the second Share collection in 2022 is the predominance of Dublin’s southside, county, and middle-class parishes among leading contributors.
Following Donnybrook is Foxrock parish which contributed €69,720 to last year’s Share collection. Next was Lucan in the west county at €60,505, followed by Crumlin in the south-central city at €59,303, Kilmacud at €58,321 and Mount Merrion parish, also south county, at €57,753.
Next is Malahide in the north county, which contributed €55,294 in 2022, followed by Newtownpark parish in the south county at €55,241.
County towns featured strongly also in 2022, with Balbriggan contributing €46,346; Skerries €43,343; Athy, Co Kildare €35,112; Arklow, Co Wicklow €29,063, while Bray’s three churches brought in a total of €75,410 in 2022.
Clondalkin contributed €41,684 in 2022, while Dundrum gave €44,430 and Raheny €46,098.
At the other end of the scale were some of the inner-city parishes, some of the oldest in Dublin. The figure for Dominick Street parish on the north side was €1,000 in 2022 while City Quay parish, just south of the Liffey, contributed €1,515. Halston Street parish on the north side contributed €1,570. Two other south-side parishes were at the lower end — Francis Street contributed €1,659 and Rialto €1,874.
Among the two leading inner-city parishes to receive support from the Share fund in 2022 were the Pro-Cathedral parish at Marlborough Street, Dublin 1, and the archdiocese’s would-be-cathedral on the south side, St Andrew’s at Westland Row. The Pro-Cathedral parish received support of €152,000 in 2022, while Westland Row received €56,760.
