Masses turn out to see saint’s relics

It was a sight seldom seen these days: Crowds spilling out of a Cork city centre church as queues formed outside and more waited in line for the next Mass.

Security guards were on hand to oversee masses who had come from all over while impromptu stalls had been set up around the Church of the Holy Trinity selling bouquets of lilies and an array of religious mementoes.

Even the most wayward of Irish Catholics know St Anthony of Padua, the 13th century friar to whom generations of Irish people turn whenever they lose anything from car keys to wedding rings.