Glanmire grotto to celebrate 75th anniversary this weekend with May procession 

The Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto will celebrate its 75th anniversary this week with its Glanmire May Sunday Procession.

May 1 is a celebration to welcome in the summer, and marks the start of a month Catholics traditionally devote to honouring the Virgin Mary.

Marian processions take place around the country on May 1, with Glanmire choosing to celebrate on the first Sunday of the month, May 5.

The Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto in Glanmire was blessed and opened for the first time on May 1, 1949, with the inaugural Glanmire May Sunday Procession taking place then. A popular tradition around the country, it has waned since, but remained active in Glanmire.

Denis Hurley, a founder member of the 1951 grotto committee, who served as its chairman for 18 years before retiring in 2022, told The Echo that it was their 75th year of the procession, “so it’s indeed a very special occasion”.

Mr Hurley said that the procession will leave from St Joseph’s Church and pass through Riverstown and Glanmire on the way to the grotto.

It will start at the church at 3pm sharp and finish with singing, reflection, and benediction at the grotto at about 3.45pm, before a statue of Our Lady will be garnished with flowers.

Bishop Fintan Gavin will be present at the ceremony, while the students from St Joseph’s, Brooklodge and Gaelscoil Uí Drisceoil will lead the singing at the grotto.

Father Bernard Cotter, parish priest of Castlehaven and Myross — and a grandnephew of Father Jack Bernard who was a founding member of the first grotto committee — will preach the Homily.

At the conclusion of the ceremony at the grotto, attendees traditionally take some flowers from the altar for their homes and for the graves of their deceased loved ones. 

Despite the bank holiday weekend meaning that some people will be away, Mr Hurley said: “We are expecting a reasonable crowd.”