An Irish village called Knock
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (334442)
Rockingham, Australia
August 30, 2019 8:06pm CST
On one of our visits to Ireland, we were making our way north and came across Knock. Not being very religious, I'd never heard of Knock and thought it quite an unusual name, not that Australia has any right to pick on the names of towns in other countries.
So we're driving along country roads and suddenly we're in this village that has dozens of cars and even more people milling around a building that looks like a church or shrine. This is Knock, a village in Co. Mayo. In 1879, three school-children saw a vision of the Virgin Mary, together with St Joseph and John the Evangelist, and Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. Ireland was in the grip of immense cultural, social and economic change when the visitation occurred.
This became one of Europe's major shrines. Each year, around one and a half million pilgrims visit the site. In 1979, Pope John Paul II visited Knock to celebrate the centenary of the apparition.
In 1963, Monsignor James Horan was appointed parish priest. He oversaw the construction of a basilica at the Shrine. This can accommodate 10,000 people. During his term of office, the Ireland-West airport was established to help cope with tourists and pilgrims.
The main street of Knock is very commercialised with umpteen shops with shonky names selling cheap and nasty artefacts. On the site of the shrine, a Visitors' Centre caters for tourists with numerous booklets, books, religious icons and tracts available for purchase. The original wall of the old church had to be fenced off to stop people removing pieces of the wall.
20 people like this
19 responses
@JohnRoberts (109846)
• Los Angeles, California
31 Aug 19
Hear any knock knock jokes?
3 people like this
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@JudyEv (334442)
• Rockingham, Australia
1 Sep 19
@snowy22315 Pretty corny but John did ask! ![](/Content/images/emotes/lol.gif)
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1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61102)
• United States
31 Aug 19
I have heard of Knock but have never been there, I would love to visit the shrine.
2 people like this
@BelleStarr (61102)
• United States
31 Aug 19
@JudyEv lol yes my Irish nun friends told me about it a long time ago.
1 person likes this
@crazyhorseladycx (39509)
• United States
31 Aug 19
most interestin' history 'n a beautiful shrine. 'tis most sad that such needed to be fenced off. jest really dunno what the heck's wrong with some folks? not very happy 'f the sellin' f fake artifacts either... surely not what those seen 'd fer 'ntent.
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@crazyhorseladycx (39509)
• United States
31 Aug 19
@JudyEv 'tis good they're not jest piled 'p 'round the shrine. they've thingies 'f that nature here'n the u.s. - where they sell wares/goods to help keep the places'p. some jest've a box, where folks can donate funds if'n they choose.
i'm with ya, particularly'n the religious sites.
1 person likes this
@crazyhorseladycx (39509)
• United States
1 Sep 19
@JudyEv oh my, that must'a been a bit disappointin'?? i reckon though the nuns'd the need fer makin' funds to support 'emselves 'n all those they help.
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@JudyEv (334442)
• Rockingham, Australia
31 Aug 19
At least the shops were quite separate from the shrine. There was an 'official' shop in site selling better quality items and lots of spiritual/religious books. I guess they need to make money to keep the place going but it always rubs me the wrong way a bit.
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@JudyEv (334442)
• Rockingham, Australia
16 Sep 19
How coincidental is that? Do you find Knock very 'commercialised'?
@moffittjc (120859)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Sep 19
I have never heard of this place. And not being very religious myself, does apparitions of the Virgin Mary only appear to Catholics throughout history? What about Protestants? What apparitions do they see?
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@moffittjc (120859)
• Gainesville, Florida
1 Sep 19
@JudyEv I have always wondered if Protestants, and even other religions as well, ever saw apparitions that appealed to their faith. Do Muslims see apparitions of the Prophet Mohammed? It would be interesting if some scientists or researchers or historians or whatever actually analyzed that to see what the results would be.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (334442)
• Rockingham, Australia
1 Sep 19
@moffittjc It would be very interesting. We have a friend who leans towards Buddhism and they believe that when you die that's it. No heaven or hell although I think they believe you are reincarnated. Anyway, I tease her that she'll get a huge shock when we both turn up in heaven. And who's to know what happens? Are all those who believe in Heaven 'right' and all other religions 'wrong'? So many questions, so few answers. ![](/Content/images/emotes/silly.gif)
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1 person likes this
@JudyEv (334442)
• Rockingham, Australia
1 Sep 19
I'd never thought about this. Vince is Catholic and we were pretty staunch for a number of years but have become pretty disillusioned lately and so are 'not very religious' either. I didn't convert when we married but always supported whatever was going on.
I went googling and the Anglicans recognise at least the apparitions appearing at Lourdes. Mary has always been a very important part of the Catholic faith but I don't think she is quite so important to Anglicans.
Same with incorruptibles. They mostly seem to be holy figures but there are some that aren't. I always wonder if they'd find more incurruptibles if they just dug up more bodies, other than saints. ![](/Content/images/emotes/lol.gif)
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@teamfreak16 (43419)
• Denver, Colorado
31 Aug 19
The village's main source of income is not tourism, but rather the export of books of Knock Knock Jokes! ![](/Content/images/emotes/lol.gif)
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1 person likes this
@JudyEv (334442)
• Rockingham, Australia
1 Sep 19
@teamfreak16 They could put that on the wall above the books. ![](/Content/images/emotes/devil.gif)
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1 person likes this
@teamfreak16 (43419)
• Denver, Colorado
1 Sep 19
@JudyEv - "Knock knock."
"Who's there?"
"God."
"God who?"
"God says you better buy this book or there'll be Hell to pay!"
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@topffer (42156)
• France
31 Aug 19
Weird, the only Knock that I knew is a theater play by Jules Romains, "Knock or the triumph of medicine." The doctor Knock buys the clients of an old doctor in the country to apply his own method : while the local population was healthy, he soon convinces them that they are all sick. The link I give is a masterpiece of French cinema where Knock is played by Louis Jouvet who was playing at the first representation in 1923. I think you can get subtitles to follow it, it is really funny/sarcasfic.
And I cannot find if Jules Romains visited Knock in Ireland, but it is not impossible. He was a friend of James Joyce that he met at the Pen Club, and he went to Ireland.
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@arthurchappell (45003)
• Preston, England
16 Sep 19
I have heard of Knock though I have never been to Ireland
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@LadyDuck (467216)
• Switzerland
31 Aug 19
@JudyEv Of course I searched and I found that even about this "apparition" there is a skeptical analysis explaining how natural phenomena could have led to "imagine" things. I also read that there are serious discrepancies in the witnesses' accounts. I know that also for Medugorje the Pope is now skeptical.
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@wolfgirl569 (102078)
• Marion, Ohio
31 Aug 19
@JudyEv We have some strange ones here too.
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@Deepizzaguy (99657)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
31 Aug 19
Thank you for sharing the story of the church in Knock Ireland. And I thought some names in Panama has strange names like La Boca and Rio Mar.
1 person likes this
@Deepizzaguy (99657)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
1 Sep 19
@JudyEv All I know how the town has its name La Boca from the Canal Zone Brats site is that the city is in the entrance of the Panama Canal in the Pacific side.
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (77608)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
31 Aug 19
Thank you for sharing another interesting story about a village with an amusing name Knock. Love the photos.
1 person likes this
@andriaperry (116936)
• Anniston, Alabama
31 Aug 19
Very interesting. One side sin and the other Godly.
1 person likes this
@ilocosboy (45156)
• Philippines
31 Aug 19
Thanks for sharing this information.
Some village here are very religious too. A 1500 people community can have 5 churches of different religions.
1 person likes this
@arunima25 (87128)
• Bangalore, India
31 Aug 19
That's an interesting name of the place.
The church or shrine in the picture looks pretty. Accomodating 10000 people at a time .. It's a huge number.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (334442)
• Rockingham, Australia
31 Aug 19
I just checked and the figure given is 10,000 so I hope that's correct. It was certainly huge.
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