Centenary Celebrations

„The pretty little RC church for Lerwick …”

There always seems to be that moment in the BBC programme „Who Do You Think You Are?” when the celebrity guest finds out something unexpected in their family history.

St Margarets, „The pretty little RC church for Lerwick”, all the quotes here are from the Shetland News, 08/07/1911, will be celebrating its centenary on the 2nd July 2011. When St Margaret parishioners first started researching the history of the church, we kept turning up little pieces of information, just like the programme, that were unexpected.

Everybody in Shetland knows the Catholic church as „St Margaret’s”. The Shetland News of 8th July, 1911 reported the opening Mass which was held on the 2nd July, 1911 saying „The church (which has been dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord and St Margaret, Queen and Patron Saint of Scotland) …”.

The proper name of the church came as a surprise to current parishioners. One or two thought the name of the church was being changed in some underhand way.

Recently, our Parish Priest was Fr Paul Bonnici from Malta. By coincidence, one of the priests participating in the opening Mass in 1911 was described in the Shetland News as „Fr Maurus Caruana (a Maltese gentleman)”.

The building of St Margaret’s and the ongoing life of the church chime in with the social history of Shetland. Catholic men and women, mainly Irish, following the fishing, chipped in to fund the church building in 1911. The influx of oil workers in the 70s saw an increase of parishioners, with a chaplain based in Sullom Voe for a time. The arrival of Eastern Europeans in large numbers in the 2000s, many from Poland, has brought new life to the church.

We have interesting snippets of information from various times; below are a few.

Fr Theophilis Verstraeten, a Belgian priest, was resident in Shetland for 11 years, setting up a chapel dedicated to St Anne. In 1871, he caught smallpox, after attending a sick crewman on board a Belgian fishing smack. In his will, he left money to build a church.

When the church was finally built, „The altar itself (with its side wings) was sent over from Antwerp.” Was the altar sent over by the Verstraeten family and friends?

Mrs Hakon, or Hacon, of Dornoch, Sutherland was a benefactor of the church; what she donated was described in the Shetland News article, but we know nothing else about her.

There is a plaque in the church dedicated to Mrs Margaret Cruickshank. She holidayed in Shetland, asked where a Catholic service would be held and was directed to a Gutters’ hut where a Mass was taking place, with the hut full and many standing outside. Mrs Cruickshank organised collections among the fisher folk to build up a fund to build the church. Mrs Cruickshank died on Boxing Day 1910 with the church opening in July of 1911; we wonder if that was why the church was dedicated to St Margaret. We know nothing else about Mrs Cruickshank.

In 1911, John G Anderson was the contractor and James M Baikie, from Kirkwall was the architect. The church was free from debt and funds were left over to build a house which was completed in 1914. The house was let, usually to doctors, until priests became resident.

In 1955, Fr Joseph Ryland Whitaker became the first resident priest. Fr William Ryan, Fr Brian Riordan, Fr Fintan Creavan, Fr Gerald Fitzgibbon, Fr Victor Riederer, Fr Peter Barry, Fr James Hayes, Fr Gerald Livingstone, Fr Paul Bonnici and current incumbent Fr Colin Davies have since followed Fr Whitaker.
In 1976, Fr Rory Geohegan was appointed as chaplain to the Sullom Voe oil-related construction workers.

There are many gaps in our information, especially between 1911 and 1955.

Can any reader help us fill in some of the gaps in our information? We are hoping that parishioners, past and present, and others in the wider community who might have information or photographs from St Margaret’s past, will get in touch. You can contact us at St Margarets, 87 St Olaf Street, Lerwick, ZE1 0ES, on 01595 692233 or on e-mail: stmargaretsshetland@btinternet.com