1985 and the Moving Statues Phenomena

NachoBusiness wrote: »

I remember some chap seen our lady in a ditch on the back roads between Blanch and Mulhuddart one day and came off his motorbike as a result.

It was headlines of the Sunday World and for the next year or more, every Sunday, hundreds of people would queue up on that part of the road to meet the chap, give him a few quid if he would lay his hand's on them or their wheelchair bound family members.

Was sometime in the 90s.

Just been told that it was at Our Lady's Well in Mulhuddart. But sure why wouldn't he see Our Lady in the ditch so, if her fcuking statue was there. Our Lady's Well indeed, but yer man certainly wasn't. I wish I still had a copy of the Sunday World. Had a picture of the queues of people. Locals thought he was the messiah.

Those seventh sons of seventh sons are still doing good business in Ireland. Isn't there some fellow in Kells that still does it.

When I was 16 (1990) I was brought to see Finbar Nolan out in Seapoint by a family member who was convinced he would cure my ailments (leprosy) and I remember bricking it. It felt really eerie. We were waiting months for an appointment. How times have changed for him.

ThisRegard wrote: »

There's a grotto there (at Ladyswell, hence the name), was that not what he saw?

Yeah, that was it, posted above since.

Was most likely his first time on the road and it scared the shite out of him.

NachoBusiness wrote: »

Yeah, that was it, posted above since.

Was most likely his first time on the road and it scared the shite out of him.

Yeah, I posted before I got to your update. He probably did crap himself when he thought he saw someone just standing there at the side of the road.

7th son of a 7th son is still big in parts of rural Ireland, as well as claims that people can have the cure for all sorts of ailments.

Cold War Kid wrote: »

Well their point is that it's not much use to be complaining about Irish people not standing up to authority, when also an Irish person not doing anything to stand up to authority.

I think this stuff about "us" not standing up to authority gets overstated. I don't think we're any worse than other countries - it's just a stock thing thrown out there in any of these discussions. And what else would we be with all the self flagellate?

We actually allowed an extra judicial prison system "magdalene laundries" to operate here for decades and still haven't even really broached dealing with the issue properly

We abysmally failed to investigate conditions in various institutions largely because of fear of the church authorities.

There are tons of issues where Ireland has done EXTREMELY badly at standing up to de facto self-appointed establishment religious authorities.

We let them ban books, ban condoms, you name it!

*We* let this happen. It wasn't imposed on us in a way we couldn't have stopped. We just let the church & cronies bully us into submission.

So, I think we actually deserve rather a lot of self-flagellation on the issue. We've been absolutely weak as water when it comes to exerting any notion that the state should be a proper republic rather than a theocracy.

Shopping before Christmas? Whatever next, buying chocolate eggs coming up to Easter?

Cold War Kid wrote: »

SpaceTime those things crept in insidiously. You don't see the same level of criticism towards the numerous other countries where similar took place.
It's just self loathing - and makes sense "we" we're allegedly so cowed if that's how we view ourselves.

They didn't creep in insidiously. they were state policy in most of those areas!

The official school rules for national school still mention laundry as an optional subject for girls in 2015!

The government who we elected imposed bans on contraception, made divorce illegal, created various committees to decide which books to ban and so on.

Ireland in the very recent past was a weird place that operated on some kind of religious corporatism where the democratic government basically shared power with the church to run the country, rather than actually being a democracy.

To abdicate all public responsibly for the horrific mess that *we* as a nation allowed to develop is absolutely revisionist nonsense.

Sam Kade wrote: »

What a short memory you have, maybe I should have said crazy shopping :rolleyes: Shopping for a month before it's only one day FFS.

No maybe about it if it was going to be the cornerstone of your point.

ThisRegard wrote: »

Yeah, I posted before I got to your update. He probably did crap himself when he thought he saw someone just standing there at the side of the road.

7th son of a 7th son is still big in parts of rural Ireland, as well as claims that people can have the cure for all sorts of ailments.

All of that is an excuse to frighten the shyte out of the uneducated to control them. Our Lady was warning us over contraception or some such. The folk Catholicism of the elderly generation was full of demented stuff about God looking to smite the Irish with fire and brimstone if we went along with the Godless English and Americans. All bollocks.

Only miracles I saw was people believing this nonsense then. It's like something directly out of Farther Ted.