Rathkeale worshippers stumped by act of vandalism

You will, of course, be aware that today is the blessed Feast of the Assumption. Even as I write, you are probably on the way back from Rathkeale, Limerick, where the big day was celebrated with gusto by worshippers who flocked to the sacred field containing a tree stump in the likeness of “the Virgin Mary holding a baby”.

Council workmen discovered the miraculous qualities of the stump last month after they felled some trees adjacent to a schoolyard. Since then, it has become a regular focus for the devout, who say rosaries in its presence.

So far, so Father Ted, only this is not a sitcom, this is Ireland – though sometimes the boundaries with Craggy Island get more blurred than Father Jack’s vision after a good feed of Brasso.

However, it seems that nothing is sacred to the heathens who vandalized Ireland’s real “class-A relic” last weekend. Apparently, worshippers arrived at the sacred stump last Sunday morning to “have a bit of an old pray” only to discover that the Devil’s spawn of Rathkeale – indifferent to the risk of divine retribution - had sprayed it with paint.

“This was an action carried out by mindless morons who have nothing better to do”, local shopkeeper Thomas Hogan told the Irish Times. "It’s extremely disappointing to think that something like this could happen on sacred ground”.

Fortunately for the worshippers, a group of Rathkeale women wooden let the vandals spoil the big Assumption Day show, and restored the stump to its former glory (be to God) for the hundreds of people turning up at the field today to offer thanks and prayers.

We won’t make any remarks about “mindless morons with nothing better to do”, as that would be a cheap shot.

Back to Gombeen Nation main page