StOM StOM 1611 | Page 9

on our recent holiday, has a well in the grounds where you can fetch Holy Water, and my Catholic neighbour brought me a bottle of such water from a pilgrimage to Lourdes. The Knock Shrine (Irish Cnoc Mhuire, Hill of Mary) is not as ancient as Walsingham, but built at roughly the same time as the Walsingham revival., where in 1879 observers stated there was an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary with St Joseph, St John the Evangelist and angels, as well as Jesus Christ in the form of a Lamb. As at Lourdes and Fatima, this occurred at a time of social upheaval, and people looked for a stabilising factor in the Church. Witnesses were said to have stood for up to two hours in the pouring rain reciting their rosaries, while the place where the Holy Figures had stood remained dry. We did also experience a huge downpour ourselves on that place and did not remain dry. Yet I am still fascinated at the association of the vision with water. An Irish anthropologist, Dr Peter Mulholland, took this in 2011 as part of a case study, exploring a range of explanatory theories. He highlights the interaction of social context, family structure and catholic tradition, in generating the (quote) “kind of quotidian life experiences that have sustained magical ‘devotionalism’ and facilitated the spread of New Age healing beliefs and practices in modern Ireland.” There is also another side to water, which has always been a sign of richness. Huge swimming pools and spas are signs of wealth, floating in water with high salt concentration is a rather luxurious way of relaxation, cities have always shown with monumental fountains, how well they can supply their citizens with water, and lately there has been a European initiative called ‘Right 2 Water’, which wants to establish access to clean water as a human right. Although we have experienced water as something that can be bought and sold, water is not the usual kind of ware; poor people must not be excluded from a water supply. Lack of water can cause conflicts between states, more frequently now with climate change. For instance, there had been extreme draught in Syria before the Civil War, which led to failed harvests and the movement of more than 1.5 million people into towns. There are projects for large damns in Ethiopia which led to tensions with neighbouring Tadzhikistan. Western governments are involved in peace making projects to give funds and know-how to states in similar disputes, like at the Nile and Mekong rivers. Luckily, a river in common is not only a border but also something that can unite nations, as Germany has experienced with the River Rhine, which in time past was seen as sacred to the German Nation, and proved to be quite an unholy water. Brigitte Williams StOM Page 9