The Pilgrimage Site
The growth of railways and the appearance of local and national newspapers fueled interest in the small Mayo village. Reports of "strange occurrences in a small Irish village" were featured almost immediately in the international media, notably The Times (of London). Newspapers from as far away as Chicago sent reporters to cover the Knock phenomenon, while Queen Victoria asked her government in Dublin Castle to send her a report about the event. In later years Catholic nationalists used the apparition to symbolically challenge Queen Victoria and her descendants' position in Ireland using for Our Lady of Knock the title Our Lady, Queen of Ireland.
Read more about this topic: Knock Shrine
Famous quotes containing the words pilgrimage and/or site:
“The ripest fruit first falls, and so doth he.
His time is spent; our pilgrimage must be.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The present hour is always wealthiest when it is poorer than the future ones, as that is the pleasantest site which affords the pleasantest prospects.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)