Front a Special Correspondent DUBLIN..
On Sunday last, May 29, Dublin's own open-air Shrine to Our Lady of Fatima was blessed by the Rev. Valentine Burke, the parish priest, in the parish of The Most Precious Blood, West Cabra.
The shrine is a tableau representation of the Fatima apparitions, Our Lady being surrounded by the three children, Lucy, Francis and Jacinte. together with their sheep.
The statue of Our Lady has come from Portugal. while the other figures arc the work of a famous Dublin craftsman, J. A. Deghini, who is also working on a carved wooden statue of Our Lady, which it is hoped will be erected in the church.
People had been converging on the little temporary church, and outside on the site for the new church, where the shrine has been erected, for over an hour before the ceremony commenced.
On reaching the shrine, the vast crowd sang the Fatima hymn, " 0 come to the Throne of Grace." The blessing then took dace.
ROSES AND HANDKERCHIEFS At this point 150 girls dressed in white who had been standing on guard around their Queen, threw rose petals on Our Lady, and the people waved their handkerchiefs and threw kisses at the statue in the true Fatima tradition.
It was a moving sight to see that ocean of coloured and white handkerchiefs and to behold young and old perform those simple ceremonies.
It was explained to the people that The Roses stood for the Rosary, the kisses told of the consecration to the Immaculate Heart, and that the handkerchief in the Church's Liturgy had always symbolised labour and sacrifice.