St. Margaret

Introduction

A steeple was added to the church, with a bell cast in Dublin. The Summerlee Coal Company was taken to court for damage to the church from mine workings.

History

The Royal Emblem of Scotland and the arms of Saint Margaret were placed above the altar. Miss Mulvey and Miss McGeechan painted pictures on the High Altar panels, including Saint Andrew and Saint Margaret. In 1932, the Angelus was arranged to be rung for the first time. Saint Margaret's was chosen for the first Mass in the new rite, with the first English Mass in the Diocese served by a bishop.

Music and liturgy

Retreats were organised and missions preached in the parish by Vincentians, Franciscans and Redemptorists. A parish priest was presented with a richly jewelled chalice by his fellow priests when he was raised to the dignity of Canon in December 1917.

Parish life

The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, Diocese of Motherwell Furniture Project is based at Netherton Industrial Estate, Wishaw. The League of the Cross Temperance movement was introduced to provide recreational facilities that would attract young men away from public houses. Rooms hired at Whiteriggs and Darngavil were equipped with reading rooms and recreational areas, and on Sundays the same rooms served as Sunday schools for children. Lectures were organised, and Thomas Bradley, founder of “The Lamp” and a leading Temperance advocate, spoke in Airdrie.

Parishioners organised outings and arranged sporting and social events, gaining organising skills and achieving status within the Catholic community. The parish priest played the leading role in making these opportunities available to the people of Saint Margaret’s. Encouragement was given to Father John Linster to establish a mission at Meikle Drumgray, near Greengairs, and in 1892 a church was opened there. A further chapel-school was established between Whiterigg and Plains, before being replaced by Saint David’s at Plains.

In all, some 1,900 souls passed from the care of Saint Margaret’s to these new parishes, but still some 4,000 remained. Despite the poverty of most of his flock, the priest raised several collections, some for the Children’s Home at Langbank and others to aid the poor in Belfast, to emphasise the importance of giving. From 1914 to 1918, the hall at Saint Margaret’s was used by women as a centre where they made socks and scarves and packed parcels to send to troops in the trenches.

The church hall was fitted out to provide recreational facilities for the unemployed, including billiards, solo, carpet bowls, and a selection of newspapers. The yearly picnic to Rochsoles was organized by the school janitor.

Sacraments and pastoral care

A tenement of eight houses with garrets was built at Flowerhill to provide accommodation for the poor of the parish. Fathers Timothy Brosnan, Gerald McColgan and Jeremiah O’Riordan led the transition from the Latin Mass to the 'mixed' Mass.