Ger’s disciples following in his footsteps

BEAR with me while I approach the point laterally by way of an interview I had in the seventies with a charismatic cult leader called Kevin Jacobson, leader of a group called Mary’s Followers of The Cross.

Jacobson looked like a Viking and had a striking pair of blazing blue eyes. His robed disciples were both male and female, slept together in dormitories, and were encouraged to resist the concurrent temptations as they spread the word of God. Not one taint of scandal was ever attached to Mary’s Followers – who once lived on the Aran Islands – and they actually applied to the authorities for official recognition as a mixed religious order about 20 years ago.

But the reason I mention them is because I was a young married man with a family when I interviewed Kevin Jacobson in Galway. The man with the blazing blue eyes had such a powerful presence that after an hour I almost decided to abandon wife and children and join the group there and then.