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faith · Saturday 8 August 2026 · Various 
Missionaries of Africa Mission Appeal Weekend, Cookstown
At Holy Trinity Church · Chapel Street, Cookstown, Co. Tyrone
At Holy Trinity Church · Chapel Street, Cookstown, Co. Tyrone
A priest from the Missionaries of Africa, widely known as the White Fathers, will celebrate every Mass in Holy Trinity Church, Cookstown across the weekend of Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 August 2026. The order was founded in Algiers in 1868 by Cardinal Charles Lavigerie, initially to train local clergy and later to serve mission territories across the African continent, and its members still work in parishes, schools and clinics from West Africa to the Great Lakes region. Visits of this kind, often called a mission appeal, are a long-standing feature of Irish parish life. Rather than an ordinary Sunday collection, the visiting priest preaches on the order’s work overseas and a retiring collection is taken at every Mass that weekend to support it directly.
Cookstown parish has confirmed that its own St Vincent de Paul collection will stand down for this one weekend so that parishioners are not asked to give twice. Mission appeal weekends like this rotate around different missionary societies through the year, so the visiting priest and the cause supported change from one appeal to the next, and parishes are typically given only a few weeks’ notice of which order is coming. Holy Trinity Church on Chapel Street is the same church that organises Cookstown parish’s regular pilgrimage trips, including its own coach pilgrimage to Knock Shrine each September, and it serves as the main Catholic church for the town.
Holy Trinity Church is on Chapel Street in Cookstown town centre, close to the top of the town’s long main street and within easy walking distance of the town’s car parks and bus stops.
Cookstown’s main street is one of the widest in Ireland, running in a straight line from Holy Trinity Church down toward the town centre, with cafes and shops close by for anyone attending the weekend’s Masses. There is more to see in Cookstown and across Co. Tyrone.
Heading to Holy Trinity Church in Cookstown? Tyrone has plenty more to see. Read the Cookstown area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.