40 years since the statue moved in a grotto near the tiny village of Ballinspittle and many things have changed. However, as a place of pilgrimage, the grotto is still a draw for those seeking solace
As one sits across from the grotto in Ballinspittle on a Friday morning in 2025, it is about as quiet as one can assume it was in early July 1985, before many, at least outside of Cork, had any idea of where Ballinspittle was. While the grotto was a special place for veneration for many years before then, on July 22nd, 40 years ago, something occurred which would change the history of the village forever.
On that evening, Kathy O’Mahony saw the statue of the Virgin Mary at the grotto move, as did 17-year-old Clare O’Mahony and ten-year-old John Daly, along with four others members of their families. There were members of the O’Regan and O’Donovan families who had claimed to see the statue moving in the 1970s, but it was this 1985 sighting that seemed to resonate. By August 3rd that year, there were reports that thousands had converged, with a mile-long walk to the
shrine now necessary.
At the time, one resident told The Southern Star that between 10,000 and 15,000 people had gone through Ballinspittle on the previous Sunday night. All this, where the whole population of Kinsale’s environs was just 636 people, according to the 1981 census.
That edition in early August was the first time that the occurrence made the pages of The Southern Star, 13 days after the fact. The headline on the front page simply stated: Accounts conflict: Some see it, some don’t. It was far from being the lead front-page story either; that honour went to delays in the Government’s Social Employment
Scheme. By August 17th, the paper had a report of the moving statue of Our Lady at the Courtmacsherry Grotto, where a crowd estimated at ‘well over two thousand’ attended a rosary on the recent Feast of the Assumption, August 15th. In advance of the Feast of the Assumption in Ballinspittle, meanwhile, a traffic system had been introduced, and 2,000 tons of infill had been put into the ‘quarry carpark’ in readiness, with new public toilets and two telephones. 20,000 people visited Ballinspittle on that religious day.
By the following week (August 21st), almost exactly a month after the first sighting, the stream of cars was reported to be falling, and ‘not as dense as a few weeks ago’. This 1985 article observed that ‘Ballinspittle will never be the same again’ and that far from being a ‘nine-day wonder’, the experience would prevail long beyond July.
That reporter was certainly not wrong, however a cursory glance at the editions that follow in the months beyond that summer show that the story of the statues in Ballinspittle, like all things, quickly fell out of favour and out of the headlines. It reappears time and again, notably in October of 1985 when the paper carried a court report of a 21-year old local man who masqueraded as a priest at the grotto. With his collar on back-to-front, he was allegedly ‘drunk as a lord’. Justice was served as the young man’s father subsequently came on the scene, ‘gave his son a few belts’, and took him home.
By November 1985, Ballinascarthy man Dan Holland, along with Clon man John White had written a song about the moving statues, where the funds raised would go towards the grotto committee. A full year later, by July 1986 a very, very small piece advertised a hymn service at the Ballinspittle site, to be celebrated on the first anniversary of the ‘reported sighting’.
Today, the grotto is immaculate, and the painting is maintained by Johnny O’Mahony, the son of Kathy. Paddy Simms, as caretaker of the grotto, is a man mentioned by every person who speaks with The Southern Star for his dedication to his work at the holy site.
Fr Thomas Kelleher holding up the Monstrance at the Feast of the Assumption celebrations in 1985.
Crowds at the shrine in September 1985.
Rosary beads and other mementos hang off a ledge, while a number are draped around Bernadette’s neck as pilgrims ignore the pleas to stay behind the wall. Sitting on the viewing site opposite the grotto, in the space of about 30 mins a number of people of varying ages and creeds can be observed blessing themselves as they drove past. One in an EV Nissan Leaf, another in a beaten-up and filthy Land Rover. Local Sebastian Pike pulls up to the grotto to fill water bottles, and says that he has himself witnessed a man drive past, stop, and dutifully reverse, all because he failed to bless himself
first. Sebastian was only two or three years old in 1985, but grew up with the story in his veins: ‘Everyone knows it in school, and then you’d see it pop up in! There’s an element of fame; everyone in Ireland knows about Ballinspittle grotto, anyway’.
Aisling Minihane, who is involved with the grotto committee today, saw the statue move on July 22nd, and it still moves for her today.
‘Dad came home from the pub, and said the statue was moving, and everyone was talking about it. We were down there in our pyjamas, all locals.’
‘I saw it move straight away, I still see it. And I do, I find it frightening at times. I still don’t understand it.’
Whether one sees the statue move, or believes it moved or can or will, is a fact that is irrelevant to the solace the Ballinspittle grotto gives in any case.
‘People get peace there, and they get comfort.’ says Aisling, who says she meets people from all over at the grotto.
The Aurora Bolealis, or Northern Lights, caught above the holy site in Ballinspittle by Sebastian Pike.
‘In this world, with the way it is, if it’s giving courage, or hope, whether it’s true or not, so be it. Growing up as a teenager, we had the “Oh, you’re from Ballinspittle” – we were the butt of the joke. But the older I get, I care less. If people don’t believe, I always say “go down and have a look so”’.
‘More often than not they say “Oh no no!”. I think they’re afraid that it might be true’.
Aisling says that people in the locality will often gather at the grotto in times of collective grief, or if someone is ill or bereaved, to pray.
Again, she repeats the mantra, that if it brings peace and it brings comfort, what does it matter what brings people to the site.
‘There’s not the crowds, but if it brings people solace and hope, then so what? I want to tell the world. I want people to keep coming’.
A rosary will be held at the grotto from 8pm until 10pm on the evening of Wednesday 16th July for the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
There will also be rosaries at the same time on Tuesday July 22nd, on the 40th anniversary of the moving statue.
