Rev. Shirley Murphy moved to the Louth town in August 2025 to take up her role at St. Nicholas Green Church, where she said she received a warm and generous reception from the local community. However, her first months in Dundalk were marked by tragedy following the sudden death of her husband, Julian, in November.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been very difficult,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was such a healthy man, but he was rushed into hospital after he became ill and developed complications.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rev. Murphy paid tribute to the support she and her son have received since his passing, describing it as \u201cincredible\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe support of the church for myself and my son during these last months has been amazing. Our neighbours and the school community too have been a real source of strength. We are really blessed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Rev. Murphy explained that the church is entering a period of positive change, with St. Nicholas Green Church recently securing cross-border PeacePlus funding for a major renovation project.<\/p>\n
The works will see significant upgrades to the historic building, including improved accessibility, new modern toilet facilities, upgraded lighting and sound systems, and more comfortable seating to support music and cultural events. A new stairwell will also open up additional space upstairs, which will be used as a rehearsal area.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am really privileged to be working with such amazing people,\u201d Rev. Murphy said. \u201cThis PeacePlus project has come through with a lot of guidance from our church member Aidan Harte and many others on the committee.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the redevelopment would mark a \u201cnew era\u201d for St. Nicholas Green Church, with a renewed focus on community engagement and making the church more accessible to the wider public. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a fantastic building, and when we host open days people often tell us they have passed our doors so many times but never thought to come in,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really want to open it up so that people visiting Dundalk, or those living locally, can see for themselves what the building looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the church already attracts visitors, Rev. Murphy hopes the improvements will make it more accessible and welcoming to people \u201cfrom all walks of life\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith my own background from a different ethnic minority, I am really pleased to see people from many cultures and all parts of the world starting to visit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The redevelopment works are expected to get underway later in 2026.<\/p>\n
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rev. Shirley Murphy moved to the Louth town in August 2025 to take up her role at St.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,22011],"class_list":{"0":"post-285953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-olivia-ryan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}