★★★★ RTE.ie

We’re delighted to welcome director Aoife Kelleher to the IFI for a Q&A following the 18.30 screening on August 26th. Tickets for this screening are on sale.

In 1879, fifteen people in the village of Knock, Co. Mayo witnessed an apparition of the Virgin Mary. 
The village was declared a Marian Shrine and today welcomes over one million pilgrims annually. Aoife Kelleher (One Million Dubliners) builds a vibrant portrait of the phenomenon through its devotees
– invalids seeking cures; the eight sibling owners of rival religious merchandise shops; a woman relieved of MS during a 1970s pilgrimage; feisty Mildred, advocate for gender parity
 for the shrine’s handmaids; the staff
 of the Knock Marriage Bureau; and 
Fr. Richard Gibbons, the charismatic, outward-looking Parish Priest, working to attract transatlantic visitors to the shrine.

With its references to ‘the scandals’, falling church attendances and the eighth amendment, the film presents a timely reflection on the position of the Church in modern Ireland and a compelling glimpse into an anachronistic but thriving world.(Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn.)

Don’t forget we now schedule weekly.