Parishioners fight to save Gothic masterpiece doomed by church bosses

Of all those old Glasgow districts shredded by the construction of the M8 motorway, Anderston was selected to take the biggest hit.

Like many others in working-class communities deemed to be standing in the path of progress, Anderston’s residents discovered they had no agency here and the district was eviscerated. Their homes were coming down and that was the end of it. Families who’d lived there for several generations were removed and scattered with no more thought given to their past and their future than if they’d been cheap furniture.

In the years that followed the harrowing of Anderston, a settlement of box apartments has emerged, while the re-birth of neighbouring Finnieston has rekindled the embers of what once was. Some remnants of old Anderston remain. Behold the Savings Bank of Glasgow, saved from despoliation by its red sandstone magnificence and the outstanding baronial heraldry carved around the doorway.

Down the road, The Buttery is still in business, kept alive by its long-standing reputation as a much-loved Glasgow dining establishment.

St Patrick's Church in Anderston (at left of photograph), Glasgow. The church is adjacent to the M8 motorway (Image: Colin Mearns) And then there’s St Patrick’s Church, beside the motorway just north of the river and perhaps the most visible place of worship in Scotland. It’s been keeping guard over this parish – one of Glasgow’s oldest Catholic congregations - for 127 years. It’s part church, part fortress: a statement of defiance set in stone that seemed to say to the civic wreckers ‘here and no further’.

St Patrick’s was designed by Peter Paul Pugin, one of Victorian Britain’s greatest architects. It’s a Gothic masterpiece representing the optimism and hope of Glasgow’s Irish Catholic community, then in the throes of facing down the discrimination and racism that greeted them as they fled An Gorta Mor (the Great Famine).    

The church has survived the destruction of the M8; the depopulation that followed it and the decanting of many families to new lives in Australia. In 2007, the community had to endure the trauma of Angelika’s Kluk’s brutal murder at the hands of Peter Tobin, who had worked as a handyman at the church and who disposed of this poor young Polish woman’s body underneath its pews.  

Ironically, after 175 years of facing down adversity and social isolation, its fate is about to be sealed by its own spiritual leaders. Last year, the archdiocese of Glasgow gave parishioners summary notice that it was being considered for closure. Several other churches were also listed, but none possesses the stature, history and beauty of St Patrick’s.

The archdiocese said that a depressingly familiar suite of challenges had left them with no option, citing the ruinous cost of ongoing repairs; a dwindling congregation and a shortage of priests.

Many parishioners though, have been appalled at the manner in which they’ve been treated by the church authorities. One of them, whose family lineage in the parish stretches back to 1850, said: “parishioners feel they’ve been treated with contempt by the archdiocese. There has been scant engagement with us and an almost complete lack of clarity and transparency about this process. Many of us believe this is a done deal and that a lucrative multi-storey development is the end goal.”

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Local business owner Stephen Young said: “St Patrick's is an historic and architectural gem within an area which has already lost so much history and so many community spaces. I hope we have the opportunity to put forward the parishioners’ long-term and sustainable plan for keeping St Patrick's parish and church. There is a lot of re-development in Anderston that could increase the flock.”

Parishioner, Rosaleen Hart said: ‘Our parish is 175 years old. Surely, we can sort out some solution that would be pleasing to all? The fabric and condition of the church is not in a good place - that we can agree on - but to consider closure as the only answer cannot be right.”

Among the questions they want Archbishop William Nolan urgently to address include disclosing how the profits from any future sale will be divided up. If St Patrick’s is to close, they’d like its name to live on by purchasing a smaller building in Anderston which could be consecrated as a church.

The social demographic in this neighbourhood is substantially poor, elderly and includes vulnerable communities. They will effectively be excluded from attending Holy Mass by the church they and their families have supported financially for their entire lives.

They’ve simply been told that the congregation, like those families upended by the motorway, would be scattered … to St Peter’s in Glasgow’s west end and St Andrew’s Cathedral at the other side of the city. St Peter’s hosts one of Glasgow’s most affluent congregations while the Cathedral, which received an expensive, gold-leaf makeover in 2011, is the administrative headquarters of an asset-rich institution.

The cathedral refurbishment also came with an elaborate Italian Cloister Garden to commemorate the sinking of the Arandora Star carrying Anglo-Italian deportees in 1940 off the coast of Ireland. There has been scant recognition though of the immigrant Irish who literally built and paid for the cathedral in 1816 or of the famine that killed a million of their countrymen.

The parishioners want other answers. Will the archbishop exhaust all options from the community before confirming the closure of the parish and the sale of the church? Will the archdiocesan Estates Department agree to meet with parishioners and share relevant timescales, tender processes and finances?

All requests to see a detailed costing of repairs have been brushed away. Parishioners believe that as they’d raised substantial funds previously for repairs they could do so once more if given the chance.

The construction of the M8 and the Kingston Bridge saw Anderston carved up (Image: Newsquest Media Group) They also want to know what options the archbishop is actively pursuing regarding future use of the building and if he’ll commit to reinvesting any profits from the sale back into the community. They say that the community paid for and built St Patrick’s and that parishioners have neither agreed that their asset can be sold, nor the profits used to boost the coffers of the Cathedral and St Peter’s.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese said: “The church building needs roughly £2m spent on repairs if it is to have a secure, long-term future, but sadly demographic change means the pastoral need for the parish and church is no longer there.” He said that parishioners have been told everything about the situation and that there had already been a public meeting with the Estates Department with more in the future if necessary.

He added that they’d already announced at a public meeting that the Archdiocese was open to work with any developer and that an idea being considered was for a tower-building on the site of the church house and garden.

He dismissed calls for profits from a future sale to remain in the Anderston community. “Bishops have no discretion over the use of the profits from any sale. Canon Law mandates that these funds ‘follow the parishioners’ and be shared between the parishes taking on the pastoral care of the area.”

Some parishioners dispute this, pointing out that the monies can’t possibly ‘follow the parishioners’ because many will find it difficult, in the absence of public transport links, to get to the cathedral or the west end.

Another campaigner against the closure said: “Parishioners expected a genuine consultation about the future of the parish and church building. There were objections raised by concerned parishioners at every stage. Instead, we were told that the Estates Department and developer were looking at ideas for preserving the building ‘when we close as a church’.

The parish is 175 years old and the church building is 127 years old (Image: Colin Mearns) When old Anderston was cleared to make way for the M8, the residents felt powerless to resist. The present-day worshippers of St Patrick’s won’t be going quietly. The archdiocese claims that the average Sunday Mass attendance is around 100, but by Saturday night an online petition was showing 177 verified signatures.

The petitioners say: “St Patrick’s has been a cornerstone of Anderston’s spiritual and cultural life for generations and its presence is vital to the neighbourhood’s identity and heritage. The church is not just a building; it is a sanctuary for many, offering community support, hosting events and serving as an irreplaceable symbol of our shared history. The community of Anderston deserves to have a voice in the decisions that directly affect them.”

In the 1850s there were more than 2,000 Catholics in Anderston, the overwhelming majority of them Irish. In readiness for the opening of St Patrick’s, the church asked parishioners to volunteer to assist the builders, masons and joiners. Many of the current parishioners are from families which physically helped build St Patrick’s, brick by brick.

This church is dedicated to their patron saint. It’s the last standing link to the sons and daughters of Ireland who built the Catholic Church in Scotland. They won’t succumb without a fight.

Kevin McKenna is a Herald columnist and Scottish Feature Writer of the Year