News
This is an article from the Irish Times
Corkman Msgr Basil O’Sullivan (88), parish priest of Holy Family, Dunblane, and Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Auchterarder, in Scotland, was on his way to meet his bishop on the morning of March 13th, 1996, when gunman Thomas Hamilton entered the local school and opened fire on a class of five year olds. In the deadliest mass shooting in British history, he shot 16 children and their teacher dead, injuring 15 others.
“I had a meeting that day with the bishop but I passed the school that morning having no idea what had happened. It was already over. I saw no sign of any activity. So when I met the bishop, he said you had better go back straight away. I went straight back. It was a pretty harrowing time.”
Parish priest at Dunblane since 1988, who celebrates 65 years as a priest, said “some people have never got over it. Of course parents never got over it but I suppose, in a sense, you have to cope, whatever happens you have to cope in life, but you never forget.
“It’s burned into the memories of everyone involved. I had to bury two of the little boys. Of course some of the children were injured as well, I had to look after them too in hospital. For the town to get back to normal it took well over a year or so.”
He was chaplain at the nondenominational school. “We had three chaplains, two of them were Protestant of course and I was the Catholic one. They made no distinction. We worked as a team. It was a very happy ecumenical arrangement. They were colleagues.”
He agreed that, sadly, the massacre is what Dunblane is best known for, before adding, “It’s famous for Andy Murray, too.” The tennis player was a nine year old at the school then. Canon O’Sullivan, however, has never met him.
In 2012, his experiences at Dunblane prompted him to contact Msgr Bob Weiss of St Rose of Lima parish at Newtown, Connecticut in the United States when gunman Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six teachers at the Sandy Hook elementary school before killing his mother and then himself.
“I emailed him and he emailed back and I went across for the first anniversary of the shooting,” Msgr O’Sullivan said. A concelebrated Mass they held then to mark the Sandy Hook anniversary featured in a film, Lessons from a School Shooting: Notes from Dunblane, which went on later to win the best short documentary award at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
Early days
As a priest, Msgr O’Sullivan has only ever served in Scotland but never lost his Cork accent. Indeed, and not untypically of people from that county, when asked whether with the name O’Sullivan he was an Irishman, he responded: “..a Corkman, from Blackpool in Cork, same area as Jack Lynch came from.”
He was “the youngest of nine, all gone to heaven”. After attending primary school at the North Monastery, he went to St Finbarr’s diocesan college at Farranferris as a day boy before heading to All Hallows seminary in Dublin.
It was “always a college for sending people overseas, a missionary college founded by a Dublin priest, Fr John Hand, way back in 1840, or thereabouts. That’s how I ended up in Scotland. At that time, there seemed to be plenty of priests in Ireland. I went there at 18, a callow youth,” he said.
“I wanted to be a priest, and it was more important to be a priest than where you were sent. Bishops from all over the world were writing to the rector [at All Hallows] and the idea was to go to some place where they were short of priests. Scotland was short of priests in those days.”
He recalled how “33 of us were ordained together, happy days”, by another Corkman and All Hallows alumni, then auxiliary bishop (later bishop) of Honolulu, John Joseph Scanlan.
Of his 33 colleagues ordained that day “13 went off to the States, 11 went off to England and Scotland, five to Australia and New Zealand, four to South Africa, they divided up like that”.
He was sent to Dundee in Scotland “and after that I was sent off to Rome to study canon law. I spent some years in the Scots College there, then back to Dundee. I was sent around the place over the years. I’m here in Dunblane for a long time, 33 years, that’s a long time.”
Indeed it is, and though Catholic priests can retire at 75, he has continued to minister. “The bishop was particularly keen for me to stay on and I was keen myself. I was quite happy to stay on. I didn’t want to look at four walls.”
Restrictions
Similar restrictions on public worship due to the pandemic have applied in Dunblane, as in Ireland, and even when allowed they have resorted to “Mass on the lawn” as “our churches are small, so social distancing would make it impossible to accommodate a congregation”.
To date, he has celebrated the 50th and 60th anniversaries of his ordination in Dunblane and on June 17th there was another outdoor Mass there to mark the 65th anniversary of his ordination.
In a tribute, his bishop Stephen Robson said Msgr O’Sullivan had “always been there for his people, through thick and thin, serving with fidelity and love” and was always a comfort to “those who still mourn the terrible attack on Dunblane primary school in 1996 and to help heal the memories of that tragic day”.
For his own part, and 89 years old next month, Msgr O’Sullivan hopes to stay on in Dunblane. “A lot depends on the bishop,” he said, but he has no plans to return to Cork. “I’m too long away and all my siblings are gone to heaven.” As for losing the accent. “No, that wouldn’t do would it? My Cork accent will never leave me,” he said.
There is chat about the possibility of Aldi setting up in Dunblane.
Read the Stirling Observer article
Dunblane Museum reopened on 3rd July 2021.
Due to a lack of volunteers, this will initially be on Saturdays only from 10.30 to 3.30
A Dunblane house has reached the final of Scotland's Home of the Year Show. The final will be this Wednesday on BBC Scotland followed by Monday on BBC1. The house has wowed judges by its collection of 70s furniture and artefacts. It has also made amazing use of access to wooded areas behind the house. You may recognise the location from the programme, but we're not planning to give anything away!
The popular Dunblane Area Green Travel Map has now been updated thanks to funding from the Smarter Choices Smarter Places Open Fund. First published in 2011, the map has helped many people to discover walking & cycling routes and explore our lovely local area. Many other projects use the maps too, e.g. for health walks, cycle training, travel planning. This latest update includes new paths and community suggestions made in the Map Survey.
As well as being online here at Dunblane.info, free paper copies are available at schools, Dunblane Library, Braeport Centre,“Weigh Ahead”, Doune PO/Information Centre, Recyke-a-bike and some local bike shops. Enjoy!
Dunblane Library has a new timetable from Monday 16 August
They are more or less back to normal now and no appointment needed to visit.
Late nights will be reintroduced on 1 September.
Another of Dunblane's sporting heroes has made history leading St.Johnstone to victory in the Scottish Cup final and the Scottish League Cup final in his first year as manager of the club. Ex-international football player Callum Davidson was given his first full-time role in management with St Johnstone in June 2020 and the team is going from strength to strength.
Proposals for Retirement Housing at Kippendavie Road have been made by The IGM Dalgleish (1991) Trust.
The online consultation is live from Monday 24 May to Friday 11 June.
Read the Stirling Observer article
Some background to this proposal (from the pages of Dunblane.Info)
In 2014 there were plans to build 4 low impact houses in Kippendavie Wood (Application Ref :14/00587/FUL). The proposals were made by Bell Ingram and Bobby Halliday Architects on behalf of the IGM Dalgleish (1991) Trust.The application was refused in September 2015.
A new application, again for four houses was submitted in March 2016 (Application Ref 16/00099/FUL). The application was refused in January 2017. Read a Stirling Observer article.
The next Dunblane Community Council AGM & meeting is to be held on Wednesday 2 June from 7pm until around 8.30pm.
If you would like to attend the meeting via Zoom, please email DCC's Secretary at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - he will then send you a link for the meeting.
Rosie's plastic free shop - Weigh Ahead - has moved to Graham Stewart's former shop at 91/95 High Street.
Go to the Dunblane.Info webpage
Go to Rosie's website
More...
Because of current government Covid restrictions our volunteer collectors are unable this year to call on you to uplift your Christian Aid envelope. Instead, we would invite you to donate to the work of Christian Aid using one of these two methods: Use the dedicated online Just Giving page for the Dunblane Christian Aid Group. You can find this at: www.justgiving.com and search for ‘Dunblane Christian Aid’. Put a donation in your envelope and drop it off at either of these two shops on Dunblane High Street: Charisma, 2 High Street or Meldrums Newsagents, 34 High Street THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROSITY Christian Aid Scottish charity number SC039150
DUNBLANE SHOP NOW OPEN
Now feeding 1,838,859 children in 19 countries around the world
Please call in and grab yourself a bargain!
Donations welcome.
Please call 01786 825797 to arrange
a suitable drop off time
Local people in Glassingall have provided the attached update to their campaign against the proposed Truck Stop + Fuel Station
Text drafted in December 2020 by Pete Bicheno, Glassingall Resident
Stirling Council's planning committee meeting on the 4th August 2020 approved this controversial plan. After discussing the application and spending much time on the dangers of this stretch of road the four Conservative councillors suddenly did an about turn and approved the planning application.
The meeting was recorded and made available for anyone to watch but has since been removed from the Council's website. Councillor Majury does have the video on his website.
A petition has been lodged in the Court of Session challenging this decision. Interestingly the planning officer recommended turning down the proposal on seven grounds. Most of the documents about this application have been removed from the council website but the planning officer's report (panel report) with a recommendation to reject is available here.
Perth councillors and local residents on both sides of the border are concerned. See the Courier 12 October 2020
This News Item was posted in 2019
Planning Application being considered now by Stirling Council
Major development on A9 Northbound at Firs of Kinbuck on land some 500m South West of Balhaldie Farm, Dunblane
Proposed roadside services comprising Petrol Filling Station (sui generis), Truck Stop, Restaurants and Drive-thru (Class 3/sui generis), Amenity Building (Class 1 & 3 and ancillary uses), Hotel (Class 7), landscaping, access and ancillary works. View Planning Application 19/00243/PPP
Tell the Council what you think asap
This News Item was posted in 2018
The Proposal of Application Notice is for Land at Firs of Kinbuck, A9, 500m South-west of Balhaldie Farm, Dunblane.
The Notice is for the Erection of a Roadside Services Area comprising Petrol Filling Station, a Truck Stop, a Restaurant and Drive-thru’s an Amenity Building and a Hotel and Leisure (whatever all that means!)
You can read the Proposal of Application Notice and look at the location plan
If you want to know more, come along to a Public Exhibition in the Victoria Hall, Dunblane on Tuesday 2nd October 2018 from 3pm to 8pm