Despite Ireland’s economic downturn, Kieran Cooke discovers the village of Knock
in County Mayo remains popular with pilgrims who visit the site where Mary,
Joseph and St John are said to have appeared 130 years ago.
Like one of those elongated golf carts that bleep their way round airports and
busy railway stations, the Knock shuttle vehicle meanders across the vast area of
tarmac surrounding the shrine.
No talk of planes or trains to catch here though.
“Are you going to confession?” ask two elderly women, laughing like schoolgirls
on an awayday as they struggle against the wind with an umbrella.
“Hop in,” says the driver cheerily. “What about the Apparition Chapel?” asks a
red-faced man with wobbling arthritic hips and large farmer’s hands.
“Get up there with the ladies and we’ll make a tour of it,” says the man at the
wheel.
Forget those destinations in Ireland the tourist brochures talk about: the
Blarney Stone, the Giant’s Causeway, the Ring of Kerry or the lakes of Killarney.
Along with the liquid charms of a trip to a Dublin brewery, the shrine at Knock
tops the list of Ireland’s most visited attractions, each year playing host to
hundreds of thousands of people.
Couples circle various statues, their subdued murmurings like bees in a spring
garden.
There is a queue at the holy water taps. One man is filling bottle after plastic
bottle.
There are several people in wheelchairs. Others navigate on sticks, fragile but
determined in the driving rain.