National Trust to save disused churches urged

CONSERVATIONISTS are threatening to occupy disused churches in a bid to prevent their sale to private investors for millions of euro.

In what would be a copycat action of efforts in the Archdiocese of Boston, where Catholics are staging sit-ins to prevent such sales, the National Heritage Council (NHCI) has warned it too will occupy churches if the State does not set up a National Trust to save them.

"The people's money built these churches and the State cannot sit idly by and allow the churches to sell them off for huge profits when they could be turned into community centres that would provide vital services for parishioners," said NHCI secretary Damien Cassidy.