A GAA mad priest has described his heartache at discovering that his 'sick kit' and sacrament of holy oils was stolen from his car as he watched the All-Ireland Final replay in Croke Park.
Fr Gary Donegan from Fermanagh was in Dublin on Saturday for the exciting second game against Dublin and Kerry.
He parked his car in Herbert Park which was broken into by heartless thieves as Dublin secured their famous five-in-a-row against The Kingdom.
The priest who has been awarded for years of reconciliation work in Ardoyne is appealing for help to be reunited with the 28-year-old kit.
He has used it to anoint the sick and dying throughout some of the community's most turbulent times and it means so much to him - he'd have rather lost his car.
"Even if the car was gone, literally I wouldn't mind, but I was given the set that holds the Holy oils for anointing people," he told Belfast Live .
"I have used it for the last 28 years. I anointed my grandparents, anointed my little baby nephew who died. My friends' families, anyone who was sick.
"I climbed the tower after a young man who took his life in Holycross with the same stock. I anointed a man who died during riots with it. There's an awful lot of sentimentality and an awful lot of emotion attached to it."
Fr Donegan said the oils were in three little silver containers in a black pouch in his glove box.
"They are no use to anybody," he added. "Inside it was the holy oils, the rite of anointing and it's all stained with the oils down through the years. Then there's a little relic of St Charles.
"They probably thought they got a purse with valuables in it and probably discarded it either in that park, Herbert Park, or somewhere around.
"I just hope somebody might find it and return it to Donnybrook Garda Station."
Fr Donegan also lost a number of others items after his car was broken into.
He explained: "I was down at the All Ireland final replay. I came back afterwards and parked outside a friends house near Herbert Park in Dublin - a very quiet residential area.
"In the middle of the night I heard an alarm going for a couple of rings and then it stopped.
"I got up the following morning and went and opened the boot of the car. I thought 'I know I rummage around the boot, but that boot looks very disturbed'. My car is basically my home with the amount of miles I do."
The peace and reconciliation worker said he had a Mass kit, which was "lying open and the altar bread lying about".
"I didn't think I'd done that," he added. "So I went to go to the front of the car and approached the driver's side and could see papers and stuff that would have normally would have been down the side, lying over the drivers side and I thought 'Oh God, my car has been broken into'."
The Co Fermanagh native said his coat, sunglasses, a jersey, new runners and cuff links were among the items stolen.
"They had almost gone through it with precision," he added. "But they left stuff behind that you would have thought could have been stolen. I am diabetic so there was a lot of medication."
Losing the 'sick kit' as he calls it was the biggest blow.
"I just hope somebody might find it and return it to Donnybrook Garda Station," he added.
