1985 and the Moving Statues Phenomena

Kiwi in IE · 19-07-2015 10:33PM

Sam Kade wrote: »

Here we go again :rolleyes: NOT EVERYONE BELIEVED IT BACK THEN

If I thought that everyone in this country believed that, trust me I would not be living here.

fryup · 19-07-2015 10:59PM

and as for Knock

there's a rational explanation for that too, it was a magic lantern

Miss Demeanour · 19-07-2015 11:05PM

I remember my mother packing a picnic of ham sandwiches, cheese and onion tayto and bottles of tanora for the event and about 9 of us piling into the car to head off to see it.

The only miracle I witnessed that day was us all getting there and back in one piece......

Sam Kade · 19-07-2015 11:48PM

Miss Demeanour wrote: »

I remember my mother packing a picnic of ham sandwiches, cheese and onion tayto and bottles of tanora for the event and about 9 of us piling into the car to head off to see it.

The only miracle I witnessed that day was us all getting there and back in one piece......

That reminds me back in 85 nine of us came home in an opel Kadet 7 adults 2 children 2 adults in the boot, similar to this

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v37/milkfloat/kadett1.jpg

Sam Kade · 19-07-2015 11:52PM

Kiwi in IE wrote: »

If I thought that everyone in this country believed that, trust me I would not be living here.

Thanks, the ones praying were the mad ones.

Fleawuss · 19-07-2015 11:57PM

darkpagandeath wrote: »

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

FaRther Ted actually hits the weird religious world nail on the head!

_Whimsical_ · 20-07-2015 12:01AM

You may think we've come along way but there something in Knock in 2009 where a Dublin man claimed to be getting messages from our lady and was predicting the sun spinning in the sky. Thousands of people went to see it, some people are still suffering the eye damage from staring at the sun according to a nurse on the news recently.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/thousands-wait-for-knock-apparition-1.755275

That two big "celestial" events both peculiarly timed at the some point as our biggest financial crises. Hard times do funny things to the Irish psyche.

endacl · 20-07-2015 02:23AM

30 years ago.

In the rest of the world: Live Aid
In Ireland: Some auld biddies imagined they saw supernatural sculpture salsa.

conorh91 · 20-07-2015 04:05AM

Ah lads lets not ruin a perfectly funny thread with these bitter swipes at Irish people in the 80s and the Church

Yeah Magdalene Laundries, yeah child abuse, De Valera and McQuaid and nuns with sharp sticks, it was all miserable.

They have nothing to do with this. It's just a funny story about a real-life Fr Ted episode. No need to get so worked up!

My Gran is the most religious woman Ive ever met. She's hardcore, but even she didn't believe in this joke. People of that generation are made of sterner stuff than most of our generation, they didn't come down in the last shower. I don't believe they were as servile as often made out.

As far as i can see balinspittle was a circus that had more to do with public boredom than religion, I think it's hilarious.

NIMAN · 20-07-2015 04:35AM

endacl wrote: »

30 years ago.

In the rest of the world: Live Aid
In Ireland: Some auld biddies imagined they saw supernatural sculpture salsa.

Neither event changed much.

Still starving people all over the world. Always will be.
And still mad religious people in Ireland. Always will be.

Edit: well it did make one of the organisers worth about £50 million, who still complains about people having no food.

efb · 20-07-2015 04:48AM

NIMAN wrote: »

Neither event changed much.

Still starving people all over the world. Always will be.
And still mad religious people in Ireland. Always will be.

Edit: well it did make one of the organisers worth about £50 million, who still complains about people having no food.

Don't critisize live aid... At least they did something.. Was what I was told when I did

Frankly my dear · 20-07-2015 05:25AM

SpaceTime wrote: »

...

Until 1980 condoms were basically illegal and not only couldn't be imported but couldn't be mentioned in publications!

In the mid 80s they were still incredibly tightly controlled.

Oooh Matron!

whisky_galore · 20-07-2015 08:48AM

"Mass" hallucination.

Sam Kade · 20-07-2015 09:06AM

endacl wrote: »

30 years ago.

In the rest of the world: Live Aid
In Ireland: Some auld biddies imagined they saw supernatural sculpture salsa.

And both of them were a joke

LDN_Irish · 20-07-2015 10:38AM

It's mad how literally every single irish person believed this. Strange how an entire nation can believe in something so ridiculous. I haven't read the thread so maybe someone has already explained how every man woman and child could believe this.

fryup · 20-07-2015 10:41AM

LDN_Irish wrote: »

It's mad how literally every single irish person believed this.

i didn't

i was mortified at the time

watched the news reports through my fingers

Kiwi in IE · 20-07-2015 11:05AM

LDN_Irish wrote: »

It's mad how literally every single irish person believed this. Strange how an entire nation can believe in something so ridiculous. I haven't read the thread so maybe someone has already explained how every man woman and child could believe this.

Anyone who believes every 'man, woman and child' who were in the country at the time believed that bollocks, almost qualify for the same level of foolishness and idiocy as those who did actually believe it.

I am sure that normal, rational people were horrified and embarrassed by the whole ridiculous spectacle.

whisky_galore · 20-07-2015 11:07AM

Sam Kade wrote: »

Did they have a boxing match after the cameras going?

I heard the Child Of Prague got called out that day.

SpaceTime · 20-07-2015 11:08AM

The whole country most certainly didn't believe it and I'd say even the church was highly sceptical and quite dismissive of it.

What's amusing and a bit worrying though is how the 1980s Irish media treated it as if it were a bit of a real thing. It says more about RTE of that era than about the Irish public.

There was a lot more unquestioning reverence by certain aspects of officialdom back in those days.

It was a very strange country though when you think back on it. It's quite difficult to put it into a 2015 context.

Ireland seems to have sort of gone through a delayed 20th century. It's like we stopped in about 1950 and little changed socially until the late 1980s but when it did, it changed all in one compressed dramatic period. It was a bit like we had the US 1960s-1990 period all compressed into about 10 years in the late 90s / early 00s.

Galwayguy35 · 20-07-2015 11:09AM

LDN_Irish wrote: »

It's mad how literally every single irish person believed this. Strange how an entire nation can believe in something so ridiculous. I haven't read the thread so maybe someone has already explained how every man woman and child could believe this.

No we didn't, I grew up in a rural area which would have been a lot more Catholic 30 years ago and nobody believed it at the time.

SpaceTime · 20-07-2015 11:12AM

I don't think the media in 2015 would indulge it though to the same degree it would have in the 1980s.

Bear in mind that when Telecom Éireann introduced the first premium rate telephone numbers in the 1980s, the equivalent of 1550 .. in an era when the UK's equivalent was dominated by sex lines, Ireland's most popular service was "Dial a prayer".

Admittedly, that didn't last long. But that early to mid 80s period was *very* conservative, certainly at an official level anyway.

My only impression of it was that there were a lot of outwardly Catholic versions of Hyacinth Bucket from Keeping up Appearances in Ireland in that era i.e. 'curtain twitchers' who were fixated on being 'respectable' rather than being devout catholics.

whisky_galore · 20-07-2015 11:14AM

A lot of people called out to statue sites simply to witness the fuss, gawp at tv camera crews, maybe say a quick Hail Mary or three (just in case sh*t got real), had a chinwag and checked out the current cattle prices, bought a bag of chips and drove home.

SpaceTime · 20-07-2015 11:15AM

I think though you have to kind of see it in the Father Ted context.

There was very little else going on and a moving statue was big news!

It was up there with whistle thefts.

LDN_Irish · 20-07-2015 11:36AM

I was taking the piss lads. "Not everyone believed it" has been a fairly common post on this thread which I did actually read.

Badly Drunk Boy · 20-07-2015 12:01PM

Our local statues had a charity 5-a-side in aid of the Order Of Malta. My church's team won 10-7.

I was 12 when this madness happened. A big enough crowd gathered for a few days at the statue of Mary at my primary school, and there were reports of movement or tears. Even as a 12 year old (and a fairly naive one at that), I thought it was ridiculous.

20-07-2015 12:24PM

It wasn't just Ballinspittle, there were (apparently) moving statues all around the country that year. There were moving statues in Roscrea as well.

Haven't seen this bit mentioned yet. Apparently a crew came down from Dublin and struck the Virgin with axes and hammers, destroying her!

I love the quote from one of them—"The statue at Ballinspittle only moved once – when I hit it. If it moves again I’ll be back!"

http://comeheretome.com/2015/02/16/operation-zero-smashing-the-moving-statues/

In October the statue at Ballinspittle was attacked in very dramatic fashion. In front of dozens of praying onlookers,three men wielding axes and hammers went to work against the monument.During the attack, one of those praying shouted that “you must be Satan to do something like this”, while one of the vandals shouted back “you are worse to be adoring false gods.” The men were arrested by Gardaí and the ensuing court case grabbed the headlines. The three men had travelled from Dublin with the aim of smashing the monument, and it was revealed that they were essentially evangelical Protestants of an extreme bent. The men called it ‘Operation Zero’, stated that their aim was “elimination of all false idols from Ireland.” One of the three stated “The statue at Ballinspittle only moved once – when I hit it. If it moves again I’ll be back.”

Galwayguy35 · 20-07-2015 12:32PM

I remember a lot of people went to the Church in Fahy (its a place here in Galway) thinking they could see a face or outline on the wall.

Think it was a few years after the moving statues.

arayess · 20-07-2015 12:55PM

for all youse laughing at this - how can you explain the miracles?

The fella with the healed stroke? or the lady hearing after 30 years?
How do you explain that?

anyway doesn't matter to me, I was living in syria then.

Sam Kade · 20-07-2015 12:57PM

SpaceTime wrote: »

I don't think the media in 2015 would indulge it though to the same degree it would have in the 1980s.

Bear in mind that when Telecom Éireann introduced the first premium rate telephone numbers in the 1980s, the equivalent of 1550 .. in an era when the UK's equivalent was dominated by sex lines, Ireland's most popular service was "Dial a prayer".

Admittedly, that didn't last long. But that early to mid 80s period was *very* conservative, certainly at an official level anyway.

My only impression of it was that there were a lot of outwardly Catholic versions of Hyacinth Bucket from Keeping up Appearances in Ireland in that era i.e. 'curtain twitchers' who were fixated on being 'respectable' rather than being devout catholics.

Didn't the media zoom in on the tree stump less than 10 years ago? The media nowadays still report rubbish to fill airtime.

Sam Kade · 20-07-2015 12:59PM

LDN_Irish wrote: »

I was taking the piss lads. "Not everyone believed it" has been a fairly common post on this thread which I did actually read.

Yeah you were :rolleyes:
You're only trying to redeem yourself.

1985 and the Moving Statues Phenomena

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