1985 revisited: Ballinspittle's moving statue — ‘We weren’t expecting what we saw’

Ellie O’Byrne revisits one of county Cork’s strangest phenomena: a statue of the Virgin Mary that, in 1985, drew enormous crowds because witnesses believed they had seen it moving

The statue of Our Lady in the Ballinspittle Co Cork today. In 1985, when a local woman said she had seen the statue moving. Picture: Chani Anderson

It was a summer’s evening in 1985, and Colm Crowley and a friend were looking for something to do. Colm had just finished up his degree in UCC. Unemployment was rife: Within the year, he, like so many of his generation, would emigrate to London to find work.

But on this particular Tuesday night, the friends decided on a little road trip out of Cork City.