Galway PP’s delight at return of his stolen stations

A County Galway parish priest shed a tear when he was informed that six very valuable oil paintings depicting the Stations of the Cross have been recovered almost three years after they were stolen.

“I cried the day I discovered that they were stolen and I cried when I was told earlier this week that they had been found in good condition,” admitted Fr Martin McNamara of Kiltullagh parish near Athenry.

In June 2013 the six Stations of the Cross were removed from the Church of St Peter and Paul in Kiltullagh and both Fr McNamara and his congregation have long since assumed that they would never be seen again.

But during a planned operation in Edenderry, County Offaly, early this week, the six pieces of artwork were recovered from a house. The discovery was made by Gardaí attached to Edenderry and Tullamore.

The good news was delivered to a delighted Fr McNamara by Galway Garda Superintendent Marie Skehill, who happens to reside in Kiltullagh.

The works, commissioned in 1946, were by renowned stained glass artist Evie Hone and had hung in St Peter and Paul’s Church since then.  The paintings – the third, fourth, fifth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth stations – were stolen on June 22, 2013. At one stage the whole collection was valued at €1 million.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.