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Mystery of 'Our Lady image' in Limerick
FOR many, it is simply the stump of a tree in a church yard. But for many more, it is an image of Our Lady – and one that has sparked off a wave of devotion.
But local curate, Fr Willie Russell has been quick to dispel the notion that there is any kind of apparition in the grounds of St Mary's Church in Rathkeale. "A tree is a tree," he told the Limerick Leader. "A person with imagination is a person with imagination."
"If people were there praying, it didn't do any harm," he said before adding: "There's no harm in that. I don't believe in idolatry, that would be the danger."
Ever since Monday afternoon, the curious and the sceptical, as well as the believers have been making their way to the church of St Mary's, drawn by a rumour which has spread like wild-fire that an image of Our Lady had been seen there. Dozens visited on Monday night but this had swelled to hundreds by Tuesday night.
And again this Wednesday lunchtime, the curious continued to come for a look.
The discovery was made in one corner of the grounds, after a number of elderly, evergreen trees had been cut down – it is the stump of one of these trees that has excited attention.
On one side of the stump, the dark-brown rough texture of the wood is replaced by a much paler, smoother seam of timber with a distinctive shape. It is this pale shape which has attracted the crowds. Local man Anthony Reddin cut down the tree in question and in turn is being credited with the work.
"It was a big enough tree. There were only two limbs and it's just the way the grain of the two limbs came out," he told the Limerick Leader as he continued his work on the site this Wednesday.
"You can depict what you want out of it then. It was somebody else – another man who noticed it and just said it is the image of Holy Mary," he added.
And what does he see himself?
"I see it as the grain of a tree myself," he commented.
Ursula Costello made the trip from Newcastle West with her daughter Cassie and friend Margaret O'Sullivan.
"We travelled from Newcastle West but we are a bit disappointed that we havent' been able to see it properly," she said.
As workmen continued their work on the site this Wednesday morning people had been encouraged to stay back from the site of the stump, however, as numbers once again began to swell, so did their curiosity and again people began to encircle the attraction.
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Saturday 04 February 2012
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Light rain
Temperature: 4 C to 10 C
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