‘There were traffic jams in the village’

THE vast majority of the 120 or so worshipers at Sunday Mass in Asdee yesterday were unaware that 25 years ago to the day people reported seeing two statues in the church moving.

The parish priest of the north Kerry village, Very Rev Philip O’Connell, made no mention of the historic date in his homily.

On February 14, 1985, Asdee became the first location in Ireland where locals reported seeing statues move. It sparked a phenomenon which gathered momentum in the following months with literally hundreds of sightings of moving statues up and down the country.