Weeping Statues

The phenomena of statues weeping tears, sometimes of blood has been believed from ancient times.

Plato (AD429-347) and Aristotle (AD384-322) both stated that Dedalus made statues that walked and had to be tethered at night to prevent them walking away!  

Moving to more modern times, in 1643 in Rottweil in Germany at least 42 citizens witnessed Our Lady of the Turning Eyes shedding tears, changing complexion, speaking and moving her head. 

In August 1953 an image of the immaculate heart of Mary, belonging to Angelo and Antonina Lannuso of Syracuse shed tears for 4 days.  The sculpture was dried and closely examined but no trickery was found and  laboratory tests showed the tears to have the alkalinity and composition of human tears.  In October 1954 Pope Pius XII acknowledged the miracle of Mary of Syracuse.

Since the weeping Mary of Syracuse there have been many claims of weeping or moving statues but most have been shown to be hoaxes

And so to Ireland.  On 16th August 1920 in the middle of the Irish War of Independence, District Inspector William Wilson of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) was shot dead by the IRA.  This brought reprisals from the British Army and the town hall of Templemore, Co.Tipperary was set on fire.

In the local newspaper next day there were reports of “supernatural manifestations”  There were statues weeping blood at Thomas Dwan’s newsagents shop on Main Street and at a cottage in Curaheen 12 miles away where Jimmy Walsh, a 16 year old labourer lived.

Thousands of pilgrims descended on Templemore.  A visiting news reporter wrote that he estimated 800 people were outside Dwan’s shop and he said he saw 4 statues, some with blood trickling down them.

Hugh Martin of the Daily News said the thousands were in the square including “paralysed children, old men with Palsy and lads with withered limbs…..there was every infirmity from warts to club foot and almost every chronic malady from fainting fits to consumption.  Martin Monahan a local man who had been badly wounded at the Somme in 1916  and was known as “dragging his twisted legs between wooden crutches”,  was seen “leaping like a circus tumbler in front of a laughing, weeping, praying hysterical crowd.”  Outside Walsh’s cottage the pile of discarded crutches got bigger.  

The IRA Commander decided that action should be taken to stop the flow of pilgrims as he feared Curaheen was becoming another Lourdes, and when Walsh told him that the Virgin Mary had spoken to him and that she had given her approval to the IRA campaign and wished to see the fighting intensified, he concluded that Walsh was either mentally abnormal or an hypocrite.

Michael Collins sent for one of the statues to be brought to Dublin, he broke it on his desk and out fell an alarm clock!  The mechanism had been connected to fountain pen inserts filled with sheep’s blood.  When the clock struck it sent a spurt of blood through the statue's eyes giving the effect that it was weeping blood.

Walsh was brought to Dublin and was in danger of being executed by the IRA but as he was only 16, and many still believed him a visionary, he was held in prison and in 1923 he emigrated to Australia.

So even though a hoax, the weeping statues brough a short truce during the War of Independence! 

 

      Outside Dwan's shop in Templemore co Tipperary, Ireland 1920' 

 

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