De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Ireland's Marian Shrine at Knock, Co. Mayo, in the West of Ireland. Knock Shrine is visited by over one million people each year. The Shrine has had a huge new mosaic commissioned and that mosaic was unveiled at Mass yesterday, 28th Feb 2016. One of the largest mosaics of its kind in Europe, the huge and impressive artwork was officially unveiled by the Most Rev Michael Neary D.D., Archbishop of Tuam during the 12 noon Mass. It is composed of more than 1.5 million individual pieces of mosaic and forms part of a major, two-year refurbishment of Knock Basilica and an overall renewal project at Ireland’s National Marian Shrine, called ‘Witness to Hope’ . At the ceremony on Sunday, 15 local people, some of them descendants of those who witnessed the Apparition in 1879, performed a short candlelit procession to commemorate the extraordinary events in Knock 137 years ago. Those events still draw over one million pilgrims from Ireland and abroad to Ireland’s Marian sh...

In which I wax lyrical about Murrisk, Clew Bay and all things Mayo, and tell you a story about my connection to John Lennon, The Beatles, and an uninhabited Island in the Atlantic ocean. Dorinish Dorinish  (Irish: Deoirinis, pron: door-wrench) i s a place which is very close to my heart. It is an island in Clew Bay on the West coast of Ireland. Clew Bay has been immortalised in many a song and has featured on the television not infrequently as it is, without doubt, one of the most beautiful places in the world.  Dotted with small islands, it is over-looked by the sentinel-like Croagh Patrick (Irish: Cruach Phadraig), the pyramidal mountain where St. Patrick stayed for forty days and nights in the fifth century. Siobhan & I climbing the Reek. My friend Siobhan Kelly at the oratory on top of Croagh Patrick after an exhausting climb. The tiny island is one of the most special places in my life as my uncles bought it from John Lennon (of all peo...