Irish Builders Claim Statue Of Christ Levitated
[Original headline: A few scattered miracles as Ireland feels under the weather]
A group of builders in Dublin, swear they witnessed a miracle last week when the statue of Jesus Christ they were carrying rose out of their arms.
Religious statues in Ireland have been witnessed crying, waving and rising before, but there have been few occurrences since 1985.
Then the residents of a tiny village in County Cork reported seeing a concrete statue of the Virgin Mary rise and hover above its plinth. The village of Ballinspittle where the craze began in 1985, still attracts considerable numbers of ‘pilgrims’ hoping to catch a glimpse of a miracle.
But recently the spotlight has moved to a run-down part of inner-city Dublin where the supernatural experience of two removal men has become headline news.
In a scene reminiscent of the Father Ted TV series, the men were clearing a building when the statue of Jesus Christ they were lifting, jumped out of their hands. The sky darkened and from a nearby skip, a picture frame was caught by the wind and flew towards the workers.
"We ducked," said one of the men. "But it was like a scene from The Omen when a man’s head was cut off by a sheet of glass."
Subsequent examinations of the broken statue found it emitted a "rose-scented odour" and a photograph of the figure taken by local historian, Terry Fagan, revealed a Christ-like image superimposed on the negative. "It was quite spooky and I certainly can’t explain it," he said.
The Catholic hierarchy refused to comment on the occurrences. In all there have been more than 40 reports of strange behaviour by statues since 1985. All of the sightings have taken place in summer and almost always in times of bad weather.
Psychologists are reluctant to apply the term seasonal affective disorder to the phenomenon, but several concede that relentless poor weather can play havoc with people’s sensibilities.
Dr Jurek Kirakowski, a perceptual psychologist from the University College of Cork, has taken a special interest in moving statues. He claims that when people witness a statue moving, their eyes are playing tricks on them and they also have a desire to believe in something beyond the rational.
"If you look at a hazy object for any length of time, you begin to interpret what you see and see things in it," he said. "Like walking through a forest on a misty night - with an active imagination, you will see all sorts of things leaping out at you.
"Sightings may also fill a gap in people’s lives, rather like the World Cup does in the lives of football fans."
The phenomenon has other beneficial effects. Reports of moving statues are good for local business, packing out pubs, bed and breakfasts and hotels for miles around. Some moving statues have drawn crowds of up to 40,000 people daily, creating a roaring trade in rosary beads and hamburgers.
But experts investigating the moving statue experience deny that crass commercialism is at the root. A documentary screened recently on Irish television illustrated that all sectors of society are liable to come under its spell.
John Murray was the local police sergeant in Ballinspittle when he was called to the grotto on an evening in July, 1985, one of the wettest and coldest summers recorded in Ireland.
"I am a real sceptical and when I first heard about the moving statue my reaction was ‘rubbish’. But I looked at the statue and it seemed to me that it was airborne.
"Early the next morning I climbed up to the statue and tried to move it but it was stuck in the concrete. I could not find any wires or anything to explain what I had seen," he said.
• Story originally published by:
The Scotsman / Edinburgh | Nicola Byrne - July 21.02
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