As you know, I have been raving about Damh the Bard’s, The Worship of Trees, it is a tune that keeps bubbling up in my mind. So it was great syncronicity when I came across this story in The Times today.
During felling work in the Holy Mary Parish Church in Rathkeale, Co Limerick, one of the lads saw the shape of Our Lady in the tree stump. It has caused quite a stir with vistors coming over to pray at the stump, at a makeshift shrine.
The local councillor, the churchwarden and the priest are trying to downplay the whole thing. I particularly like the quote from the priest:
“There’s nothing there, it’s just a tree. You can’t worship a tree. A tree is a tree.”
Of course I would like to take issue with that, although I would rather worship a tree because it is a tree, rather than because it was supposed to have an image in it.
