Hot ashes forces priest to abandon Ash Wednesday ceremony

A North Cork priest had to abandon an Ash Wednesday ceremony yesterday after he burned 30 parishioners with the ashes he used. Fr Eugene Baker, who was administering the ashes at St Joseph's Church in Newtownshandrum, described it as an "unfortunate incident". The ashes have been sent off to a lab at St Finbarr's hospital to be tested after people developed blisters on their heads. A medical source says the burning sensation was probably caused by chlorine in the water mixed into the ashes reacting with the sulphur in the ashes.

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