‘Lourdes at home’: People queued for up to an hour in Newry

Thousands are flocking to churches around the country to view the relics of St Bernadette, who is said to have been visited by the Virgin Mary in Lourdes.

THOUSANDS OF IRISH Catholics make a pilgrimage to Lourdes each year to visit the site where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to a peasant girl.

Now, thousands are flocking to churches around the country to view the relics of St Bernadette.

Bernadette Soubirous was born into a poor family in Lourdes in 1844 and it is said that the Virgin Mary first appeared to her on 11 February 1858 – 17 further such apparitions are said to have occurred.

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