Like many Dublin parents I’ve had to tell my child their Communion is cancelled, again

Children have had to face a lot of disappointment since lockdown began.

They lost out on birthday parties, summer camps, dance lessons, visiting their grandparents, holidays being cancelled and of course ceremonies like Communion and Confirmations being cancelled. Over the latter part of the summer and into the beginning of the school year Communions began to take place again but now due to Dublin entering Phase 3 all of those communions have been cancelled yet again. My son was one of the many children across Dublin due to have his First Communion this month but it will now no longer go ahead and there is currently no new date set for it. With so much uncertainty about whether counties will or won't be put into lockdown, there's a chance it may not happen until next year with the next round of Communion children. While my son was very disappointed to have his Communion cancelled yet again we at least had some notice which unfortunately was not the case for some parents. I saw a couple of parents I know post on Facebook that their children's Communion has been cancelled the night before it was due to go ahead. Some in the comments asked quite a reasonable question in if the priest could perform the ceremony that night or come down to the school one of the days and perform the communion there. As schools are still open in Dublin it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility that priests could perform communion from school halls or classrooms but as far as I know there is no plan to do Communion this way. The new Phase 3 rules also mean that ceremonies like Baptisms have to be postponed and that weddings and funerals can only have a little as 25 people attend them.