Culture

In a word . . . Knock

Patsy McGarry's face
Patsy McGarry
Sat Aug 12 2017 - 00:00

It is official. RTÉ sports personality Marty Morrissey will speak at Knock this week. Or, as a witty sub-editor colleague in this newspaper put it in a headline last month, Marty will “appear” at Knock on Wednesday next. Twice.

He will speak at 3pm and 8.30pm on “Living Life to the Full”. And that he certainly does at this time of the year as the GAA football championship heads remorselessly towards the apocalyptic moment (for some) that is the third Sunday in September.

But Marty is always the winner. Even in Knock, where his appearances this week will be a first for him as speaker, but will double that of the Virgin Mary there in 1879. Back then in pre-history, before the GAA began and sky was free to all.

Knock. The very word is like a bell, bringing me back 110 years after that single appearance by Mary. It was during the 1989 general and European elections which took place on the same day that year, and I was sent to report on the late Sean Doherty's campaign for Europe by the late Irish Press newspaper.

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Two years previously, in the 1987 general election, Sean Doherty was the first person in the state declared elected as the people of Roscommon thumbed their noses at certain Dublin scribes who advised them he was not fit for elective office after his tenure as Minister for Justice in 1982.

Charles Haughey called that 1989 snap general election in a fit of pique and Sean Doherty decided to contest both elections. This brought him into conflict with fellow Fianna Fáiler and sitting Connacht-Ulster MEP Mark Killilea.

And yes I was there for the bitter Battle of Kiltimagh as both exchanged vicious verbal fire across the town’s calm streets as, simultaneously, they charmed passing voters.

It was in Knock however that Sean Doherty came into his own and, having been assured a group of ladies there were enjoying their “pilgrimage holiday”, he advised them he had been in Knock himself “more times than the Virgin Mary”. They loved it.

Despite which he lost his Dáil seat and failed to be elected MEP. Such are the ugly vicissitudes of politics that Heaven itself has no power before them.

Knock, Cnoc Mhuire in Irish, meaning 'the hill of Mary/Mary's hill'. Cnoc being Irish for 'hill'.

inaword@irishtimes.com