Dana stunned by wedding tale during emotional County Derry faith retreat

Derry singer-songwriter Dana got a surprise at a Dungiven retreat when she met a local woman who confessed to skipping school to attend her wedding more than forty years ago.

Dana Rosemary Scallon was speaking and singing at St Patrick’s Dungiven as part of a week-long REACH retreat organised by the parish leadership and Fr Gerry Sweeney.

The singer spoke afterwards to Diane Heaney who told her she and a friend, then aged 16,  snuck into St Eugene’s Cathedral so they could attend her wedding to hotelier Damien Scallon on 5  October 1978.

“I skeemed school back in the day forty years ago with my best friend Dolores McCloskey when I heard Dana was getting married. We had not a penny for food or drink and we were in Heaven. We thumbed a lift through Ballykelly in the midst of the Troubles, after walking part way from Limavady Technical college and we then sat through a whole funeral in the heat of St Eugenes’ and waited for the wedding and then Dana appeared and we were sitting at the back and she looked stunning.” 

Mrs Heaney recalled how Dana’s late brother, Robert, noticed the schoolgirls and asked them to distribute her Wedding Order of Service booklets.

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“He said, ‘Would youse do me a wee job?’ Would you take these booklets and put so many at the end of the seats? Her brother gave us one each to keep and I still have the booklet. Dana couldn’t believe it when I told her.”

Dana - who sang her song for St Patrick - Light the Fire - was delighted with the wedding story -  especially hearing about her late brother’s kindness. “It was truly a blessing,” she said, “to be with all the people of Dungiven.

Dana spoke of the power of forgiveness in her own life and thanking God for trials - even through “gritted teeth.”

Cara Rose McGinley joined Dana at the foot of the altar as she sang Lady of Knock on Saturday.

Dana travelled with her musician brother Gerry Brown to Dungiven to speak about the Holy Spirit acting in her own life and that of St Patrick. The retreat was REACH (Resurrection, Evangelisation, Abba, Christ and Holy Spirit) was designed by  parish priest  Fr Gerry Sweeney.

Dana and pilgrim guides and retreat leaders Martina Purdy and Elaine Kelly alongside Bishop Donal McKeown on Saturday as the retreat ended at St Patrick’s Dungiven.

The retreat blended with the Light the Fire theme, recalling how St Patrick brought the faith to Ireland and, under the pain of death, lit the flame of faith, hope and love at Slane in 433 AD.

Pilgrim guides on St Patrick’s Way, Martina Purdy, a former BBC political correspondent, and former barrister Elaine Kelly spoke across the week, sharing personal stories of God’s love in their lives. 

Ms Purdy told parishioners that she was once afraid to speak about her faith. “I would have run for the hills,” she said, “but all the baptised must now speak about and share their faith because it is simply too big a job for the priests.”

“People are dying of thirst by the river of life. And we know where they can find ‘living water’ and so let us go out and share the Good News.”

Ms Kelly credited her mother’s prayers with her return to Mass after a profound experience in her twenties. “I heard God say very clearly to me, “You have to go back to Mass or you are going to end up dead.”

Crowds at St Patrick’s 

She spoke of the power of Jesus in the Eucharist and how she was called out of her career into a life of prayer at the Adoration Convent. She said when the Belfast convent closed she and Ms Purdy went out on mission.

Fr Gerry Sweeney lit a symbolic fire last Friday after evening Mass outside St Patrick’s Church in the County Derry village where hundreds gathered daily for Mass and faith talks.

He expressed his gratitude for the week of prayer, adoration and twice-daily Masses and said the parish had broken new ground in its faith journey. “The parish is buzzing - fire of faith is burning,” he said

Around 500 people poured out of St Patrick’s last Friday to  commemorate the first flame lit by Ireland’s apostle on the Hill of Slane in 433AD.

Fr Sweeney recalled how Mary, the Mother of God, opened the door to salvation with her ‘yes’ and how St Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland,  then opened the door for the Irish.

Bishop Donal McKeown congratulated parishioners at Saturday’s Vigil Mass for making the retreat possible by turning up to focus on the themes of Resurrection, Evangelisation, Abba, Christ and Holy Spirit. 

“God has reached down to us in our helplessness,” said Bishop McKeown. ‘Make the Church Great Again’ is not a great theology. The Church will not be renewed when we want to be strong again but when we learn to let Christ be the one who slakes our thirst.” 

Bishop Donal said evangelisation was vital.“If you are not sharing your faith, you have not yet discovered what Jesus offers.”

Parishioner Regina McVey said the REACH retreat was “just beautiful”. “I think the people are hungry for their faith. The people are crying out for it.”

Carmel Harkin of Dungiven said the retreat made her think again about St Patrick. “It was the most inspiring week of my life.” Fr Gerry Sweeney said he was delighted that parishioners had turned to tread new ground. "The parish is buzzing. The fire of faith is burning."