British Pathé Newsreel
Here is a link to an old British Pathé newsreel which shows one of the pilgrimages in the 1950’s on the Island.
- Our sincere thanks must go to Pathé and to Victoria Spiegelberg who have allowed us to link to this clip. It was Joe Druhan who had brought our attention to this important and fascinating clip and Joe had heard it said that the film crew who recorded this event had passed the whole day here and had been filming all about. We asked Victoria if there might be any of those reels kept but, sadly, this does not appear to be the case. Had we been able to access all that had been filmed that day, one could just imagine what an important record that might have been.
- The newsreel begins with a familiar view of Our Lady’s Island Church and a crowd in the foreground.
- We see cars coming passing under a temporary archway with a banner “Welcome to Father Peyton”. We think this banner was erected at St Iver’s but this needs to be verified.
- Out on the Island itself, we see various views of the procession and we see carried banners which read “St. Joseph Pray for Us” and “Boolavogue”.
- We also note that the procession seems to be going around the Island anti-clockwise. Today, the procession passes clockwise. We are not sure when or why this was changed – it has always gone around clockwise for as long as I can remember – if anyone has any observations, do let us know.
- There are women and children attired in white shawls and head scarves walking in the procession. I grew up in the early 1960’s and by that time, I do believe that that manner of dress, even for ceremonial religious occasions, had ceased by then.
- We see footage looking down on a very large crowd of people facing the altar and Father Peyton talking into the microphone. If you watch carefully at this view, you will see what appears to be a structure off into the middle distance that appears to be located at the edge of the lake shore somewhere in front of what is now Davis’ “Pitch and Putt”. It looks like an old stone structure but maybe it is something else. We do not see any stone structures in that location on any of the early Ordnance Survey or the St Margaret’s estate maps. If anyone has any ideas as to what this was, we’d be interested in hearing from you.
Photos on Other Sites
Lady’s Island Tower House and Gate House – south elevation. Constructed between 1400 and 1600:
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/654439
Remains of a three storey tower, constructed between 1400 and 1600:
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/654435
Lady’s Island Castles:
http://irishantiquities.bravehost.com/wexford/ladysisland/ladysisland.html
Other Footage of Our Lady’s Island
If anyone has or knows where we might see any other footage of Our Lady’s Island, we would greatly appreciate if you would Contact Us and allow us to make it available on the website.