St Anthony's Church in Belfast || Photo feed

Despite living in Northern Ireland for over 5 years (6 in September) and 4 in Belfast - I still come across places here I didn't know existed.

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When my Mum visited me in April, she stayed for a few days, including Sunday. So I thought she would feel more at home if I could find a mass service that is carried out in polish language.

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To my surprise - the task turned out to be extremely easy. The church where Polish Mass is celebrated every Sunday is not only in Belfast, but just a five minutes drive from our house. It is St. Anthony's Church. What's more, when I was looking for Polish masses in the area, I quickly found a smartphone app called 'duszpolonia' (in English it would be a conglomeration of the words 'soul' and 'Poland', Polonia means ‘Poland’ in latin), where I could find not only the times of mass for Mum, but also other events, such as holy confession (which is extremely important for Catholics), adoration of the Blessed Sacrament(not sure what that really means to be perfectly honest).

St Anthony's Church stands on the former grounds of Willowfield House, owned by Jonathan Vint, a prominent Belfast businessman. The house and eight acres of land were bought in 1906 by Most Rev H Henry, who was at that time the Bishop of Down & Connor.

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The service started after 6pm, so I took Mum in her routine half hour early to church. I stayed in the car by myself. I didn't sit in it for long, because as the church building as well as its surroundings drew my attention rather quickly.

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The sheer mass of the church and the stone from which it is built is similar to many local buildings and does not stand out from other Roman Catholic ones. What attracted me most - was the green surrounding the church. The trees and flowers gave the place character. The late spring definitely suits the place well. It was a nice day (no, not sunny, those are extremely rare in Northern Ireland) and the light was perfect for taking photos.

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At first I walked around the church without taking a single shot. I sat for a while on the steps leading up to the side entrance, enjoying the view of the trees in bloom. Then I took a few photos of the building and by then I had already started looking at my watch. The masses my Mum attends in Poland usually last 40 - 45 minutes maximum. So I was in a hurry to take as many pictures as possible. Unnecessary, as it turned out later. An hour and over 300 photos later - still no one was leaving the church. So I went outside the church gates and started looking around. I found a rather interesting mural as well as a beauty salon with the cheeky-sounding name 'Beauty Religion' (despite my innate cynicism - I find this name really distasteful).