Seasons of Devotion

Knock is the Lourdes of Ireland, a busy place of pilgrimage in one of the richest countries in the world. Knock is also a small, ugly village in what is historically the poorest part of Ireland. This book tells the stories of this extraordinary place. It helps to change the way we understand Ireland.

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Knock is the Lourdes of Ireland, a busy place of pilgrimage in what is historically the poorest part of Ireland. In 1879, when the west of Ireland was racked by the Land War, several people reported seeing an apparition of the Virgin Mary there. Today Knock offers Marian devotion on an industrial scale, and is also home to an international airport from which the newly prosperous people of the region fly to their holiday properties overseas. Sharp-eyed, witty and intelligent, Ann Marie Hourihane tells the stories of this extraordinary place in Seasons of Devotion.