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SACRISTAN HAS LUCKY ESCAPE AS BOLT FROM HEAVENS STRIKES CHURCH

written by Stephen Maguire December 2, 2011
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A church sacristan lost her hearing when lightning hit a chapel during mass.

Dozens of parishioners had a lucky escape when bolts of lighting came down from the heavens and struck Cockhill Church in Buncrana.

The lightning came down through wires on the building’s alarm system before causing an explosion in the church sacristy.

The bolt caused thousands of euro of damage after it blew the sound system and smashed a stained glass window.

The sacristan had a lucky escape as she was standing just feet from the explosion but has since regained her hearing.

Priest Fr Rafal Janusewski, who was saying mass at the time, managed to calm the congregation before continuing in candlelight.

He revealed “There was a big noise and the thunder bolt was amazing. We heard the storm; suddenly a flash of lightning shot into the church.

“The speaker system was destroyed and there was an explosion in the sacristy.

“The sacristan was a little deaf afterwards but she is a very brave woman.”

The drama happened on Tuesday night during 7.30pm mass.

The local Garda station was also struck during the huge electrical storm which knocked out its entire communications system.

SACRISTAN HAS LUCKY ESCAPE AS BOLT FROM HEAVENS STRIKES CHURCH was last modified: December 2nd, 2011 by Stephen Maguire
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buncranaCockhill Church
Stephen Maguire

Stephen Maguire is the co-founder of Donegal Daily. He has worked as a reporter for almost 30 years starting locally with the Donegal Peoples Press before moving to the Mirror Group. He continues to contribute daily to national media outlets including the Irish Times, RTE, the Irish Independent, Irish Sun, Irish Mirror, Irish Star, the Daily Mail and the Examiner.

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