Great talker who saw the Knock apparition
Mary Byrne (1850–1936), witness of the Knock apparition, was the eldest daughter among three children of Dominick Byrne of Co Mayo and his wife, Margaret Bourke. She grew to be a tall, thin woman, with black hair and a pleasant voice. The defining moment in her life occurred when she was 29.
On August 21st, 1879, she was brought from her mothers house at 8.15pm by Mary McCloughlin, housekeeper of the parish priest, Archdeacon Bartholomew Cavanagh, to witness an unusual sight at the gable of the church. Investigating, Byrne witnessed three figures hovering about 50cm above the ground. McCloughlin was certain one of the figures was the Virgin Mary, another Joseph. It was Byrne who identified the third figure as St John because of his resemblance to a statue in a church at Lecanvey, near Westport, Co Mayo.
Byrne then went to a number of nearby houses and assembled a group of 15 people to witness the apparition. These included her younger brother, Dominick, her sister, Margaret, and her widowed mother. Archdeacon Cavanagh refused to leave his house despite the efforts of his housekeeper, whom he considered unreliable. The story of Knock soon spread, and in the following years Byrne came to be seen as the most important of the official witnesses. On the first anniversary of the apparition she carried a banner of the Virgin Mary in the commemorative procession. Her lifelong regret was that Cavanagh had not witnessed the apparition.
On July 1st, 1882, she married James O’Connell from the nearby village of Becan. They had five sons and a daughter. When her husband died, in 1926, Byrne continued to live near Knock with her eldest son, James. She was a pious and patient woman, never complaining when busloads of pilgrims would visit her house to touch her.
She insisted if she closed her eyes and opened them again she could see the vision. A great talker, she would curtly tell people to say their prayers. She gave a deposition on the apparition in 1932 and never wavered from her earlier testimony. On January 27th, 1936, in her 86th year and knowing she had not long to live, she signed a sworn statement affirming what she saw at Knock. In August 1936 she was examined by the second commission of Knock and impressed them with her clear recollections.
She died on October 19th, 1936, and was buried in Knock cemetery beside her husband.
Adapted from the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of Irish Biography. See dib.ie
