Youths Abroad Liable To Lose Faith
Armagh Observer Report 4 June 1955

Very Rev E O'Connor P.P. Kilmore presided at the opening of the new Grotto erected in honour of Our Lady at Stonebridge on Sunday. Throughout the entire ceremony the sun brilliantly illuminated every detail of the 7.5 ft statue of Our Lady. The Grotto, which is situated at one corner of the church, is the result of many weeks of hard work by a band of diligent parishioners under the able guidance of Rev Paul Johnson C.C. Father O'Connor warned of the dangers to young people leaving home and going to England. England, he said, was fast becoming a pagan country. It took great care on the part of Catholics going over there to keep the faith. The dangers to faith and morals could never be over stressed. Living in a country in which the outlook was almost completely irreligious and materialistic, it was difficult not to be influenced by the surrounding indifference to religion. It was doubly difficult for young people whose minds were impressionable and who were inclined to be carried away with the pleasures of the moment. "I want you always to carry a picture of this Grotto in your mind wherever you go", Father OConnor added. Children from the parish schools took part in a procession round the church and a choir sang the responses. Beneath the statue of Our Lady, which was brilliantly illuminated, were laid flowers gathered by the school children. The statue itself, which came from Dublin, is believed to have the finest facial expression for its type in the world. Its production was held up due to unfavourable weather and the opening of the Grotto, which was to have been in the Marian Year, was delayed. Incorporated in the dome of the edifice is a portion of an old stone cross taken from the parish church during renovations and which is, according to one elderly parishioner, upwards of 150 years old. Local recollection is that this cross was removed from the church during the 1912 refurbishment, which according to the inscription in the church porch, was funded by John and Isabella Williamson, relatives of the Keegan family, Ballyhegan. The newspaper report does not mention a very specific feature of the statue; the rosary held by Our Lady has six decades. This has been explained in terms of a custom, peculiar to the South of France/Lourdes area, of saying a sixth decade for the safety of fishermen and other seafarers.