European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 18, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday january 16, 1986 the stars and strip Page 17 Ireland s moving statue phenomenon by Hugh a. Mulligan associated press s Ince reports of moving blinking smiling statue began drawing thousands to Wayside shrines to our Layall Over Ireland the fabled Isle at saints and scholars has become a land of icon philes and iconoclasts. There Are those who fervently believe that a Concrete or plaster Virgin can nod her head give Oil a fail Aroma of roses or take on the visage of Jesus or St. Joseph or padre Plo. They remain for hours sometimes All night no matter what the weather reciting the Rosary singing hymns to Mary but mostly just staring at an illuminated image in a Grotto awaiting some movement thai hundreds at 30 different locations claim to have witnessed. Some arrive in wheelchairs and on aluminium walkers since word spread thai Frances o Riordan. Deaf since a childhood bout with measles had regained partial hearing at the Grotto in Ballin Shilue near Cork she said the first words she heard was the crowd singing ave Maria " and that a woman with arthritis had Tell her walking Cane Al the shrine and an elderly Man had been cured of a stroke there Are those who scoff or laugh a bit uneasily at the moving statue jokes making the rounds of the pubs As ii wary. Of being struck by a Thunderbolt or a believer s umbrella. Some in High places in the government and even the Church Are plainly embarrassed at such manifestations of traditional piety in modern i tech Post Vatican to Ireland where computer software and the latest health fads Are Dally credited with More miracles than holy Wells or sacred monastic ruins. Three quarters of the country is laughing heartily said government press Secretary Peter Prendergast provoking a storm of angry looters to the newspapers and More eyewitness accounts of seeing ins Virgin lift her hand or open her Mouth As if o Many come out of curiosity joining the traffic jams in the narrow lanes leading to the latest reported animated Ala Luary in wonder and Awe at anything that could outdraw a hurting match in sports mad Ireland. Some come in the service of professional scepticism Ilka the psychologists from University College Cork the to Crews from All Over Europe Tia newspaper end Magazine feature writers at least two of whom remained to Pray or Al least confessed in Prim that they could not explain what they Are certain they had seen. But recently suddenly some came in hatred in violence. Late one evening in october three men arrived in a stolen car at Balli spittle the shrine that had drawn the largest crowds and proceeded to smash the Virgin s Concrete face and wire reinforced hands with a Hammer Enax and a crowbar before the eyes of the astonished pilgrims the three dubliners charged in a District court with malicious damage were described As members of a fundamentalist Christian sect. Ii was not the first time since the moving statue phenomenon spread across the country that a religious site was desecrated causing both believers and nonbelievers to Ponder just mho Are the fanatics Here and what new sickness might be abroad in this chronically Iro blod land. In july vandals broke into the modernistic Catholic Church at ferns in county Wexford. Scattered the consecrated hosts from the Tabernacle about the Sanctuary and relieved themselves in the Alste. Five minutes away cars lined Bolh sides of the Road at e place called Camolin. Where the statue of the Virgin was reported to have turned her head to the left and sometimes taken on the face of a very Young girl Ullh Lair hair Cut in a  in Ballin Spillie on a sometimes sunny sunday afternoon cars were parked All along the narrow Road for about a halt mile leading up to the Grassy Hillside that formed a natural Amphitheater Tor the life size replica of the Grotto Al Lourdes. About 300 pilgrims of All Ages were standing or kneeling before the Ihen undamaged statue. Some of the old and infirm sat on the fold up seals still known As papa  since most were Bough Lor Pope John Paul la s 1979 visit to Ireland. A few family groups spread plastic garbage bags for a hushed picnic on the tar slope. A half dozen nuns began the hymn Salve Regina As a tall Ruddy faced priest uncalled from a mini car stacked with hurling Sticks. Recent amenities at the most renowned of All moving statues included Public toilets two pay Telephone Booths a Loudspeaker system and Volunteer committee members o direct the one Way traffic in the narrow Road. Except for a Burger and chips Van at the crossroad leading to the old head of Kinsale there were no commercial act votes no stands Selling postcards souvenirs or religious objects but there was an offering Box chained to a tar barrel and some of the nearby cottages were advertising teas or charging a Pound for parking John o Donovan. An elderly member of the committee who puts in several hours a Day at the shrine was telling a Large lamely ust arrived from Liverpool How he had seen the Virgin move tremble sort of three limes during the past month always after dark on a sunday a tuesday and e thursday but had l witnessed any movement since. Farther Down lit Road a charter bus Driver was swapping statue quips with a member of the Garda. The Irish constabulary. Did you hear about the statue in Adair that never moves he asked stealthily cupping a cigarette. They put a sign on her out of order " but reporter Kevin o Connor of the Irish Independent Dublin s largest newspaper found nothing to laugh at when sent to Ballin Spillie a Lew weeks before. Conceding any bins i might have is toward scepticism he reported feeling slowly sul used with pleasure just  then As he stared intently the features went out of focus and when they resumed the hands were up to the Side of the Ace As if she had received a blow. I text Lears come to my ayes at the Hurt she was  some in the crowd confirmed the movement. More did not. There is no Rule about it o Connor wrote. Some of Republic of Jardino a Minster the plus Don t see. Some of the sceptical do. For my own part it is no big Deal. I do not Rule out the paranormal in life. I make no All empt to Analyse or understand ii. Ii happened that s  Peter Kellner arrived in the same week for the British intellectual weekly the new statesman and after adjusting his night vision to the popping flashbulbs and wandering Torch beams came to the Clear conclusion that the statue did appear to move to Rock to and Iro ust like ii in papers had reported thousands of other people saying it  but Why did ii move " he asked himself in print. I was sure it was not As sceptics had suggested mass hysteria. Some people May have come to  wanting to see Mary move. I did not. Besides i am not a  Kellner left Balli spittle agreeing Ullh the team of psychologists trom the University in Cork that what he experienced was an optical illusion caused by staring from a distance Al Mary s head brightly illuminated by a Tiara of 11 Light bulbs against the dim surroundings of the Hillside. Other observers were More dogmatic in their disbelief. The statue at Ballins Lille is made of  wrote essayist Eamonn Mccann. It does t move and that s  some of the explanations for the inexplicable in Ireland have been As baffling As the reported events. An unending Stream of pundits variously diagnosed the symptoms of those who saw what others did t sea As a Mirage a trick of Light group hypnosis mass hysteria. Auto suggestion Tana Licis the marriage of to fantasy and bog bound  vivid imaginings of impressionable girls at the age of  nostalgia for the old rituals the latin mass the family Rosary the votive lamp flickering before a picture of the sacred heart a Crafty boost for tourism in a wet year general depression resulting from unemployment and the lingering violence in Ulster and even fears of thermonuclear War in an age when tra Dional sexual mores Are under attack in a consumer culture dominated by multinational  so far the Irish Hierarchy has neither condemned nor condoned the reports of moving Sla Lues and Miracle cures