An open evening will be held in the Parish Meeting Room on Thursday 22 October
Caragh Local History Group are beginning a research project this week into the Parish Church which opened in 1960.
The group is calling on anyone with memories, memorabilia, photographs and any first-hand accounts relating to the "groundbreaking construction of our magnificent church in the late 1950s"
An open evening will be held in the Parish Meeting Room at 8pm on Thursday 22 October to allow people to come along and share memories of the church.
The group also envisages that a specific local history talk will then be scheduled at a later date detailing the full story of the building of the church.
Speaking on Kildare Today, group committee member John Lawlor said they want to "get people talking":
"We want to get people talking, and get people's memorabilia, photos and reminiscences. The kettle will be boiling, call down and walk straight in, we'll be there to meet you, take some notes and follow it up.
"Hopefully in the New Year we'll have something to show for it, this is only the kick-off for it."
John added that "it would be great" to release a book about the church, while also hinting at the potential of an audio collection if the group manage to record interviews with local people on their memories.
"What we're hoping to do is attract as many people from the locality to give their memories for a very apt project, something that will really capture the imagination of local people and beyond."
He spoke about the significance of the church at the time, with local people raising approximately 57,000 pounds for it, which in today's money, according to Lawlor, is worth €1.9 million.
The church was third in a trio of churches built across Kildare at the time, preceded by Allenwood and Rathangan, all designed by Charles B. Powell, who unfortunately died in 1958 before the final church in Caragh was opened.
He concluded by promoting another "huge occasion" for the church later this year, as the first-class relic of the newly canonised millennial saint, St. Carlo Acutis, will visit the church on 19 November.
The full interview can be heard below:
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