Unfortunately it was raining and my camera was not really suitable so I was not really happy with the quality of the images.

This Grotto To Our Lady Of Lourdes is located at Harrington Square and can be accessed from the Old Youghal Road or via Ballyhooly Road. I cannot determine if it is in fact a "Marian Statue" but I am assuming that it is.

In 1953 Pope Pius ordered a Marian year for 1954, the first in Church history. It was called to commemorate the centenary of the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. The Marian year, which ran from December 1953 to December 1954, was filled with Marian initiatives, in the areas of Mariology, cultural events, and charity and social gatherings.

If you are not from Ireland you may be unaware of ‘Marian Statues’ and if you are younger than 35 or 40 you may also be unaware of them and even if you pass any of them on a daily basis you may not have given them much thought.

There are about 20 or 30 in Dublin alone and most of them are located on public land in what were working class areas back in the 1950s. One or two are located on private property with the statue at Broadstone Station being one example. I do not know how many are located in Cork city but every time I visit I discover one or two more.

Most were financed and erected ahead of the Marian Year of 1954 when entire communities mobilised to have a statue in their area. If you were female and you were born in 1954 there is a very strong possibility that your name is Marian or some version of that name.

The majority are still well-kept and regularly maintained by a dedicated groups or dedicated individuals but at times it can be difficult to determine who actually maintains them.

There was a Marian Year in 1987 but it had very little impact in Ireland especially when it came to statue building. I lived in Stillorgan, Dublin, from 1960 until 1985 and I was convinced that there was a Marian statue in the area well before 1986 but the Marian Statue has a plaque stating that it was erected in was erected in 1986.

For a list of grottos in cork please visit https://readingthesigns.weebly.com/grottos-in-cork-city.html I hope to photograph most if not all of them within the next two years.

As a matter of interest Ballyhooly [which I have yet to visit] is a small village in north County Cork situated along the N72 between Castletownroche and Fermoy. Ballyhooly is home to several pubs, a church, community centre and petrol station with shop. Castle Ballyhooly, a 17th-century manor house outside of the town, was the site of a well-known skirmish during the Irish Civil War, known as the "Ballyhooly Massacre", despite the fact that only one person was killed. Ballyhooly is also the subject of the novel The Ghost of Ballyhooly by Betty Cavanna, which relates the story of a local girl who disappeared from the castle in the 1890s and was never found. Other books include The Ford of the Apples, which tells the story of the village.