Memorial

We think this chapel is/was closely associated with the school, St Francis Xavier College, behind. Plunkett himself had no connection to Clapham, having spent all his life, until his trial, in Ireland.

A Facebook page contains some photos of the interior of the building and this, copied from Wikipedia: “As a spectacle alone, the rally and Mass for St Oliver Plunkett on London's Clapham Common was a remarkable triumph. As the Common was invaded for a celebration of the 300th anniversary martyrdom of St Oliver Plunkett. Cardinal 0 Fiaich , twenty enrobed bishops and a handful of abbots stood on a stage beneath a scaffolding shelter that shuddered in the wind on the 1st July 1981. The Archbishop of Armagh flew over in a helicopter with Oliver Plunkett’s body. It was a sort of dry run for the Pope's visit. This occasion attracted thousands of pilgrims to the park and this people's celebration masterminded by Fr Martin Bennett was a first for the parish of the Holy Ghost, Balham and which also boasts the first British chapel dedicated to St Oliver.”