Late 1970s for #ThrowbackThursday and this must have been my First Communion, raised Catholic like I was and attending a Catholic school like I did. Nice try, church, but you didn't sink your claws deep enough into me for it to stick.
@neonbubble
It didn't stick for me either, but much to my parent's chagrin, I am heavily informed by what those liberal nuns taught me-with their money.
I recognise the closed stage doors of St Colman's Church Hall. I wonder if I was there too since we'd have likely been in the same 'batch'?
Don't recognise the priest though. He has certain Hammer Horror vibes going on.
"Send in the next batch."
I don't have any memory of going to St Colman's at all. I couldn't actually tell you which church my mum dragged us to, though, but I always assumed it had to be St Paul's given the school location. Checking the map and it looks like we lived about equidistant from both churches so it could have been either.
I'm 90% sure they're St Colman's Hall stage screens behind. I think the Communion shite was done at the 'mother church' - St Colman's always trumped St Paul's on that.
That said, I have no memory of my First Communion except that we had to start confessing things beforehand!
Okay, I've added some more photos to an album here for more sleuthing:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/neonbubble/albums/72177720324250261/
Ooh no - I'm wrong. St Paul's must have had wooden screens too because the rest of those photos are definitely St Paul's.
(Plus - I see you're wearing your St Paul's school tie there - probably the only one we owned before St John's.)
I thought it probably was, but I couldn't quite marry up the exterior shot of the red brick building with a Google Maps view and my memory of St Paul's ceased a couple of years before yours when we moved and I changed school, so it's all less well-formed in my brain.