dwans

August 22, 1920

from National Library of Ireland on The Commons

• 4 older comments, and then…
• Swordscookie said:

  My mother told me about this long before I became familiar with Templemore and its environs! Her mother and some local ladies in Limerick hired a "Charabanc" for the day to take them there to witness the "miracle". It was all a hoax of course, the nice Mr. Walsh had pigs blood in a puffer connected to the face of the statue and he would send a pulse of blood from the eyes of the statue when the praying was going full swing, the hysteria was massive. The moving statue of Ballinspittle of more recent times was a lot more innocent than this fraud! This is the first time I ever saw a photograph of though so nice one NLI, this is brilliant!

• instinctive mind said:

  A very nice photo of those people long ago. I agree with swordscookie pro - not everyone falls for everything under the sun - - -

• Angela Orlando said:

  Amazing!!!

• National Library of Ireland on The Commons said:

  Great History Ireland article on the whole incident here, including the mechanics of making the statues bleed: www.historyireland.com/volumes/volume17/issue1/features/?...

• Stuart said:

  National Library of Ireland on The Commons Thank for the link. Read that and what a clever rouse it was! Bleeding eyes on statues can occur during hot weather when the adhesive behind them melts and seeps out.