A History of Our Parish

Sixty three years ago God sent Fr. Gerry Dunn to found the new parish of St Bernard’s to serve the growing community of South Nitshill. Neighbouring parishes were bursting at the seams and could not cope with the numbers, and St Bernard’s was established to meet the growing Catholic community by Archbishop Campbell. Fr. Willie McGinley was sent as his most able assistant.

In the absence of any parish buildings, the clergy lived in a ground floor flat at 5 Whitehaugh Crescent. Sunday Mass was initially celebrated in the former stables of Tower Rais, the property of the Montfort Fathers. Since it all began 2000 years ago in a stable, there could not have been a more fitting place for the spiritual life of the parish to begin.

Very quickly, due to the generosity and willingness of the people, a wooden church was soon erected, and for three years was the centre of the spiritual life of the parish. This church would go on to become the parish hall once the new permanent church building was completed.

And, by 1963, our present splendid new Church was built, thanks to the great love and generosity of the parishioners for their new parish.

Sadly, after just six years at the helm, Fr. Dunn died suddenly. Fr. Matt Carney was then sent to lead the parish and found himself in the midst of a very enthusiastic and dynamic people.

Fr. Carney saw a tremendous social need and pioneered the way for the creation of a social club which went from strength to strength. In its time it had been a tremendous force for good in binding the community, of all religious persuasions and none, together.

However, it wasn’t always easy to keep things on an even keel and maintain the proper balance between the social and spiritual life of a parish. This was a problem which the parish shared with other parishes in the diocese and finally the then Archbishop, Thomas Winning, decided to close the Social Clubs throughout the diocese. This coincided with the retiral of Fr. Carney.

In 1979, Fr John Brannan was appointed as Parish Priest, however his tenure was short, as he was called to work in the Diocesan offices one year later. Fr George Crawley was appointed in 1980, and led the parish faithfully until 1987, when Fr Jim Lafferty was appointed Parish Priest.

When St Bernard’s was originally established, the planned housing scheme was expected to be significantly larger than it ended up being. As a result, parts of Nitshill were realigned into St Bernard’s to take the pressure off St Robert’s. During the 1980s new private housing estates – Carswellbank, Parkhouse and Mill View were built off Parkhouse Road, which became part of St Bernard’s Parish.

Like many similar communities across the city however, this period also marked the decline in the social and spiritual life of the parish and local community, despite the best efforts of the clergy. The problems associated with the large new housing estates began to affect the very united and caring community which included St. Bernard’s Parish.

By 1994, like many other Parishes, attendance numbers had dwindled and St Bernard’s was designated a Special Needs Parish. It was at this time that Fr Joe McAuley answered God’s call to come to St Bernard’s.

Fr Joe led St Bernard’s through one of its most challenging periods, as the housing scheme the Parish was built to serve entered a period of decline and eventually was almost fully demolished by the late 1990s. For many who lived in the old South Nitshill, this was a sad and emotional time. Parishioners were rehoused in other areas and there was a feeling of dismay.

However, despite all of this, St Bernard’s continued, and the parish community lived on.

By the time Fr Joe left St Bernard’s in 2005, the parish was a well oiled machine, with different members of the parish taking on different roles, suited to their own gifts and talents, to ensure the parish ran smoothly. This has continued to this day, although the faces are different now !

When Fr Joe was transferred, St Bernard’s became one of the first parishes in the Archdiocese that did not have a resident priest. Instead, Fr Stephen Connolly, from St Robert’s, was named as Parish Priest of St Bernard’s as well. Fr Stephen left in 2006, and after a short period with Fr John McGuire acting as administrator, Fr Neil McGarrity was appointed in late 2006. Fr Neil was Parish Priest until 2017, when he was replaced by Fr Jim Dean.

No history of St Bernard’s would be complete without mention of Monsignor Matt Coakley. Mgr Coakley retired as Parish Priest of St James’ Crookston in 2005, and moved into St Robert’s Parish House to spend his retirement. However, Mgr Coakley was not a man to take things easy, and for seven years, while he was able to do so, Mgr Coakley celebrated the 11.30 Mass each Sunday in St Bernard’s. To the parishioners, he was like our Parish Priest, and when he sailed off to Ireland every summer for a couple of months, he was much missed. Mgr Coakley was almost 90 when he stopped celebrating Mass in St Bernard’s, and he will always be fondly remembered in the Parish.

St Bernard’s also welcomed the Polish community led by Fr Tomas during the late 2000s, and in the mid 2010s the Syro Malabar community were also based in St Bernard’s, with Fr George and Fr Binu. It had initially been planned that the Syro Malabar community would be permanently based in St Bernard’s, however lack of space and the absence of a parish hall made this impractical, and the community moved to St Conval’s.

Sadly, Covid arrived in March 2020, with lockdown closing all churches and other public places. As restrictions were lifted however, St Bernard’s did not reopen. Fr Jim by this stage was not in sufficient good health to minister to two parishes, and St Bernard’s remained closed, much to the disappointment of the parishioners.

Sadly, Fr Jim died very suddenly on Palm Sunday 2022. Fr Joseph Uwah was appointed initially as administrator to both parishes in April 2022. Very soon after, members of St Bernard’s Parish approached both Fr Joe and Archbishop Nolan, requesting that once again Holy Mass be celebrated in St Bernard’s.

In June 2022, St Bernard’s finally reopened after the lockdown closure, and has remained opened since. Parishioners cried, smiled and laughed as we celebrated our reopening. The absence of the Parish had been an emotional time for the community, and our joy at being once again reunited and able to worship in St Bernard’s was like having one of your greatest wishes granted.

We were further delighted when Fr Joe Uwah was appointed as our permanent Parish Priest in October 2022, and we hope he will be with us for many years to come.

The heart of St Bernard’s over the last 60 years has been its community – the welcome made to strangers, the friendships shared between parishioners, the commitment and love shown to the parish by the members of the community. Our community of faith is what has held the parish together in the challenging times over the last 63 years, and continues to hold us together in the present day. We hope this will be the case for many years to come.

Parish priests

Fr Gerry Dunn 1960-1967

Fr Matt Carney 1967 -1979

Fr John Brannan 1979-1980

Fr George Crawley 1980-1987

Fr Jim Lafferty 1987-1994

Fr Joe McAuley 1994-2005

Fr Stephen Connolly 2005-2006

Fr John McGuire 2006 (Administrator)

Fr Neil McGarrity 2006-2017

Fr Jim Dean 2017-2022

Fr Joseph Uwah 2022-present