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Child Item

1985 and the Moving Statues Phenomena

Harry Palmr

Yep it was 30 years ago that a craze swept across Catholic Ireland as it seemed that representations of the Virgin Many at grottoes started to move, people started to gather in small numbers before the news broke wider and suddenly statues across the country were jiving at crossroads and thousands would gather at the bigger events on a regular basis.

RTE News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcYsMlvr5zk

Needless to say the rest of world decided that this was worth a look-see, this is from BBC 2 Newsnight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZjM83wZmWw

Of course the summer of 85 was one of the most inclement in recorded history, it was appalling. A summer without sun and one would have to suspect that many played the craze up to get some money in the till around the country.

As someone old enough to remember all this I laughed when scratching my head then and I'm still gobsmaked that it took off like it did with people who sounded perfectly sane explaining how they'd seen things that only the deluded could truly believe. While its clear the rational can be elbowed aside quickly enough I doubt we'd fall for this now.

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Menas

It was nuts. People swearing the statues moved down in Ballinspittle.

If you kneel and stare at something long enough it will move for you!

strelok

really? what about the anti vaccination people, or the anti gmo people, or anti-nuclear people, the anti-fluoride people, etc etc etc

gullible people who want to believe in things in spite of the evidence will never be in short supply

Stojkovic

Phenomena do do be dooby
Phenomena do do be do

[Deleted User]

Menas wrote: »

It was nuts. People swearing the statues moved down in Ballinspittle.

If you kneel and stare at something long enough it will move for you!

I saw it move, as did many others, precisely for that reason.

It was great craic though, a bus trip to Cork to see the home of the craze that swept the nation, Ballinspittle was to moving statues what Croke Park is to Gaelic games.

Mint Aero

What year was fluoride introduced to our water? I'd imagine it was some mass corruption to peoples health that caused hallucinations coinciding with flu jabs or something. I'm not saying it was flu jabs or fluoride that caused these visions but I wasn't born then and I be f*cked if I do research for AH on a Sunday morning for this.

So if anyone knows of anything that was introduced to the public in 84/85 i'm willing to go with that as being the cause.

fryup

1985 more like 1885

janey mac!! were really that backward??

we were the laughing stock of europe

vicwatson

Just like the photo of jesus in the tree trunk and the toast

Mint Aero

fryup wrote: »

we were the laughing stock of europe

Still are.

strelok

Mint Aero wrote: »

Still are.

oxi

Sam Kade

fryup wrote: »

1985 more like 1885

janey mac!! were really that backward??

we were the laughing stock of europe

Ah stop most only went out of curiosity and for the drive

also to spot the talent

RomanKnows

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnao5SBunfI

fryup

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

brilliant parody

written by our good friends Lenihan & Matthews

galljga1

Local statue of Bernadette was knicked, replaced with a sign: "Gone to lunch".

keith16

Harry Palmr wrote: »

While its clear the rational can be elbowed aside quickly enough I doubt we'd fall for this now.

It's in the past where it belongs. Just fucking leave it there.

kneemos

Reciting the hail mary repeatedly always struck me as just out there weird.
Say a few prayers if you believe in it,but constant repetition I could never fathom.

LETHAL LADY

Harry Palmr wrote: »

While its clear the rational can be elbowed aside quickly enough I doubt we'd fall for this now.

Only a few years ago here.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/irish-pilgrims-warned-against-staring-at-sun-436702.html

eviltwin

Morning Ireland on RTE did a feature on this place recently, there are fools still believing this actually happened to this day. Fools.

Wibbs

It was the last desperate death rattle of the Catholic church here. A loud, unsettling but final benediction.

galljga1

kneemos wrote: »

Reciting the hail mary repeatedly always struck me as just out there weird.
Say a few prayers if you believe in it,but constant repetition I could never fathom.

Agreed, I have memories of other religions being ridiculed for being similarly ridiculous. The obvious irony was lost on those who ridiculed.

donegaLroad

I remember it well. Apparently these statues did more than just move a few cm. I heard a garda seargent's eye wittness account of how a holographic like image of a systue of mary was floating around the place in front of a crowd pf people. I think there is a gerry ryan interview with that guy somewhere.

Sam Kade

Wibbs wrote: »

It was the last desperate death rattle of the Catholic church here. A loud, unsettling but final benediction.

Even though they denied it.

[Deleted User]

Jeez, looking at the news in the first vid.......Anne Doyle was a bit of a foxy looking lady back in the day :eek:

galljga1

LETHAL LADY wrote: »

Only a few years ago here.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/irish-pilgrims-warned-against-staring-at-sun-436702.html

I love the quote: “It is a shame to see Knock being misused this way.”

Anesthetize

What a fine bunch of intellectuals they were.

the_monkey

fryup wrote: »

1985 more like 1885

janey mac!! were really that backward??

we were the laughing stock of europe

Yep can you imagine any British people watching that report on BBC - laughing their asses off at a bunch of inbred illiterate paddies gawking at a statue .

the_monkey

kneemos wrote: »

Reciting the hail mary repeatedly always struck me as just out there weird.
Say a few prayers if you believe in it,but constant repetition I could never fathom.

Brainwashing basically

Sam Kade

the_monkey wrote: »

Yep can you imagine any British people watching that report on BBC - laughing their asses off at a bunch of inbred illiterate paddies gawking at a statue .

Did you ever watch Jeremey Kyle :rolleyes:

the_monkey

Sam Kade wrote: »

Did you ever watch Jeremey Kyle :rolleyes:

Hehe good point ...

the_monkey

donegaLroad wrote: »

I remember it well. Apparently these statues did more than just move a few cm. I heard a garda seargent's eye wittness account of how a holographic like image of a systue of mary was floating around the place in front of a crowd pf people. I think there is a gerry ryan interview with that guy somewhere.

Id love to get some of the whatever he was smoking that day ...

Samaris

kneemos wrote: »

Reciting the hail mary repeatedly always struck me as just out there weird.
Say a few prayers if you believe in it,but constant repetition I could never fathom.

It's worth saying that prayers such as the Rosary, with its constant repetition , is the same as meditative trances around the world. It is intended to induce a calm and meditative state for later prayers. If you attempt to say the Rosary now, I can almost guarantee that you will probably find yourself saying it as you were taught in school when you repeated it as a group in a drone, with much more emphasis on the rhythm than the meaning.