A visit to
Our Lady of Knock shrine

One of the most uplifting trips in Ireland was our visit to the shrine of Our Lady of the Knock. This was on our way to Killarney, the southernmost district of the Republic which represents its Atlantic seaboard.

I immediately found myself presented by a similar spectacle to that of Our Lady of Fatima Shrine in Portugal's Cova de Iria. This was when we visited it several years back. With me then were Nene (Dr. Lourdes L. Espina), and Drs. Nena Paglinawan and Norma Legislador.

As with Fatima, the shrine was nestled at one end of a concave depression. Just like a valley. It must have comprised several hectares of land, topped by two churches, the traditional one and the newly-constructed temple. During his World Youth Day visit to Dublin Pope John Paul II had gone there to pay his respects to Our Lady of the Knock.

And he left behind a golden rose. This is still enshrined in a well-guarded niche with a glass cover. And, yes, to our surprise with a surveillance camera nearby and an alarm system that went off when Maté accidentally tripped it.

Shows you that the Church there no longer just depends on faith but on tools that help protect its trove of mementoes.

One can't help but feel thrilled by the visit. Nothing really impressive or visible. Only the awareness that the Virgin Mary, accompanied by St. John the Evangelist and a group of angels, appeared to 15 people there several times in the 14th century carrying the message of evangelization to the selected witnesses.

Later, two episcopal commissions submitted their report endorsing the miraculous appearances. And the area since then has become the major destinations of Ireland's Catholic faithful.

The hundreds of benches outside the two Churches all indicate the throngs that usually go there to pay their tribute to Our Lady of the Knock. While we were on our way to Killarney afterwards, we met on the road going to the pilgrimage site several bus loads of pilgrims, mostly seniors.

Around the left side of the congregating area, one can see several faucets. These distribute holy water from Knock to whoever wants to avail of the miraculous liquid. These are often put inside bottles by pilgrims. Just like the miraculous waters of Lourdes in France.

But the fascinating thing was that we were able to buy souvenirs from the town of Limerick. The pilgrimage site stores were still closed by about 10 a.m.

Nobody visits Ireland without touching base with Killarney, the district of Kerry has a population of only 132,527 in a land area of 1,189,786 acres. It is the fifth largest county of Ireland, 38 percent covered by mountains and lakes. Eleven percent more are covered by bogs and 51 percent by lowlands.

The most interesting is a delightful activity in the Land of Kerry tour. And, as usual, the pubs are the social hub of Irish life. Everybody adheres strictly to the ban of smoking in pubs. Thus, the common sight, even at the height of winter, are of pub client shivering in the cold outside as they keep puffing on their smoke. That's when happened to me. Subtly God reminded me about the destructive effect of my smoking vice and eventually drove me to cut down my habit until I finally go rid of the craving and found myself smoking only a few sticks a day from the almost 60 I used to consume before the Ireland trip.

I would have preferred to dwell more extensively on our Ireland trip. Somehow, my attention was caught by the reported flooding of several Bacolod low-lying areas, particularly Banago and the Our Lady of Mercy Hospital in Mandalagan.

Yesterday morning, Jimmy Araneta told me about an important discovery. He inquired from residents of the upland areas of Talisay and Murcia about how extensive and intensive were the rain in their areas when flood waters inundated Bacolod.

"Sir, indi naman masyado," was the reply.

So where did all the muddy water come from that "displayed such on rushing power that swept through the low areas," was how Jimmy put it.

In short, traditional waterways had neither been narrowed down or outlets dammed up. Thus, when the water broke through it was with such force that swept obstructions like toys.

That's why in one column which get lost, in transmission to Bacolod, I noted that, perhaps, the city engineer's office should be compelled by Mayor Evelio Leonardia to undertake a survey of dammed up natural water ways and try to solve the problem. And, also to include the cleaning up of canals and streams which are already clogged by plastics and other debris.

You know, that's the thing that struck me in Dublin, this city of 1.1 million hardly has any garbage in its water ways.*

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