You don’t always get an answer even when you go right to the horse’s mouth:
You may recall the mother of God took it upon herself to appear in that place [Mt Melleray] before three local children. Over the following months, crowds gathered to verify the miracle. Some could see the vision, but not hear it. Others could hear her words but not see her. Others said they could smell the roses. The three children were urged to ask our Lady questions, to request her intercession in various matters. Why is there so much suffering in Ethiopia? Why is there evil in the world? Would Jesus do something about improving the weather for the farmers? Someone passed a note to one of the young lads – and this will test your faith, though it is true as the day is long – that read: ‘What about Dermot?’
Suddenly, as was witnessed by many, Mary handed matters over to her Son, who appeared in a red robe beside her. He pointed his finger at the young lad, who was immediately placed in receipt of a hammering pain within the canals of his ears. The poor lad’s distress lasted about five seconds and was obvious to all. Jesus and his holy mother were seen to argue the point, whispering privately together. Jesus then disappeared behind the greenery and, in reply to the question, Our Lady answered:
‘Sorry.’
To be sure, the young lad made no further query.
Mark O’Flynn, False Start – a memoir of things best forgotten, p. 231
Gert Loveday's Fun with Books 
Timely, with the Fatima canonizations.
I had to look this up – two shepherd boys? What on earth is the point of all this?
Oh sorry. The Blessed Virgin is believed to have appeared several times to three peasant children in Portugal in 1917. As a Catholic kid, we were raised with this story from our very earliest days. So the Mark O’Flynn quote refers to three children and a Blessed Virgin apparition, and naturally I thought of that. Might have been more of an American Catholic thing. My apologies — sounds like I got it all wrong.
No, I did know about the three girls – we were brought up on that story too, but I googled it when you mentioned recent canonisations and apparently there are these 2 shepherd boys as well. I just hope their dogs get canonised next.
How about a St. Rover and a St. Spot?
Leslie
Great idea. That would give all dogs something to look up to.
chuckle…
And you must admit, the behaviour of many dogs is regrettable… My little brother used to say “Dogs are pigs”.
That’s a little brother for you.
I never of heard of Mt. Melleray, or the children there. I like the location in the Knockmealdown mountains, and the Monavugga River — what great names these are! Apparently Mary sang “Peace is flowing like a river,” a charming song that no-one in the Catholic Church sang until post-Vatican II — certainly not traditional (I can’t find anything about its origins on Google, but it was sung in many places well before these apparitions). Thanks for adding to my Catholic fund of information.
This Other Gert was actually in the Knockmealdowns last year, but I saw no vision. Then of course there is Our Lady of Knock in Co Mayo. A lot of it about in Ireland.
Bedtime here, so I will have to check it out later. For some reason, my very Irish mother’s family never had much to say about miracles, and especially not about Irish miracles. interesting.
This is my favorite paragraph from that Wiki article about Our Lady of Knock:”On 7 April 2012, the village of Knock hosted a major Christian rave[clarification needed] organised by the Knock Rave Foundation. The holy show coincided with the feast of Easter and featured the very best of Trance, Acid House, Dubstep and Christian Techno.[clarification needed][10.”
This is especially good because the author of another, more earnest site said that they believed that the purpose of the appearance was to warn against the Vatican II changes to the liturgy that would reduce faithfulness. If Knock is hosting Christian raves in 2012, seems like the shape that faith took might have changed, but not the faith.
The last “Major Christian rave” I think was the Inquisition, wasn’t it?
Someone was telling me the other day about the Bishop of Knock building an airstrip for all the pilgrims he expected to flood in, but they didn’t turn up. Perhaps this is a way to get mileage out of the airstrip.
But now the airport is a raving success; it is the fourth busiest airport in the Republic of Ireland. I will be popping by myself to buy my 165 (Pounds or Euro?) statue of Our Lady of Knock, who also goes by the name of Our Lady of the Apocalypse.
Other Gert