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The Apparitions and Miracles at Knock; also, the Official Depositions of the Eye-witnesses

M.H. Gill & Son (1880), via Internet Archive · 1880 · 90 pages · text from the file's own layer

This book was prepared and edited by John MacPhilpin of Tuam and published in Dublin by M. H. Gill & Son in 1880. It reprints Tuam News reports on the apparition of the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph and St. John the Evangelist, which about twenty people saw on the south gable of Knock chapel, County Mayo, on 21 August 1879. It also gives the witnesses' official depositions, which a commission of priests appointed by the Archbishop of Tuam judged trustworthy. It lists cures recorded in Archdeacon Cavanagh's diary.

  • p. 13 …What the Eye-Witnesses say—Testimonies of Patrick Hill, Mary M'Loughlin, Mary Beirne, Patrick Walsh…
  • p. 19 …In Gaelic, the name " Knock" signifies a hill. The village is surrounded by elevated knolls, which…
  • p. 20 …Looking, for instance, to the south-west, he beholds Cnoc-ban, or fair hill ; and to…
  • p. 21 …A second Lourdes has arisen at Knock, a small village surrounded by little hills, from which…
  • p. 33 …but ancient.looking, buildings erected on the hill. He naturally asks : What is that ? The site…
  • p. 40 …balls of the figures, which, as Patrick Hill testifies, appeared to him to be those of…
  • p. 43 …rightly due to the evidence of Patrick Hill, of Claremorris, a young, frank, intelligent boy, of…
  • p. 44 …Master Hill declares that they appeared to him to move, and, as it were, on wing…
  • p. 45 …I am Patrick Hill ; I live in Claremorris ; my aunt lives at Knock; I remember the…
  • p. 48 …myself; I went away then. (Signed) Patrick Hill. Witness present—U. J. Canon Bourke. October 8th…
  • p. 50 …Note.—Mary M'Loughlin had gone away before Patrick Hill came. Their testimony relates to two…
  • p. 60 …The fifteenth witness is John Durkan, one of the three who accompanied young Hill. His testimony…
  • p. 64 …looked around the church and school, and hill and vale, mound and mearing, and saw no…
  • p. 69 …This was a boy of about fourteen years of age, named Patrick Hill—a bright, intelligent…
  • p. 70 56 this story in the manner already described, Hill departed, and presentlya lad was brought in…
»7
from Dublin." And Kilcolman parish, of which Clare is the
capital, he states, contained, in 1837, 8,400 souls, or nearly
1,700 (seventeen hundred) families—at present itcontains only
1,300 families. The parish contains 22,886 statute acres. The
remains of an old Carmelite convent are found here at Ballin-
smala, within one mile and a half of Claremorris. According
to Ware, by Harris, vol. ii., 283, the friary was founded in the
thirteenth century by the Prendergasts—then owners of the
lands in that district. According to an inquisition, held 12th
May, 1608, the community possessed twelve acres of land. At
the period of the dissolution of monasteries, this establishment
and the lands annexed, were granted to Sir John King. The
friars were banished ; they managed, however, to live as best
they could amongst the native Catholics, to whom they were
devoted, and who, in turn, held the friars in great veneration.
Some thirty-five years ago the friars celebrated Mass within
th ose walls that are now in ruins at Ballinsmala.
Regarding the parish of Kilcolman, or Claremorris, one
third of the land is arable, one fourth pasture ; the remainder,
over one third, is waste or a bog. The boundaries of
Catholic and Protestant parishes are the same. The tenants
have never been rich. The wealthiest is only so far above
want, that one year or two of adverse times, like the present,
are sufficient to induce all the privations that come in the
train of poverty.
Ballyhaunis.
Ballyhaunis, as well as Claremorris, is favourably situate
on the line of the North-Western Railway. It is a rising
town. It has two hotels. A growing rivalry exists at present
between its inhabitants and those of Claremorris in the
marked attention which they pay to visitors going to Knock,
and to all tourists and strangers that pass by that way. Accord-
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