8 October 1997
By Tom Shiel
ALL THAT remains of a once cosy farmhouse where a devout and close knit family lived is a blackened ruin, mounds of rubble.......and a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The picture , which formed the front cover of the Knock Shrine Annual 1966, was retrieved from the smouldering remains of the dwelling at Cloondace, Knock where Martin Curry (80) and his sisters, Julia (77) and Kathleen (74) died early on Saturday morning.
Vanita Broderick, a neighbour of the Currys , spotted the picture on Saturday morning, amongst the piles of acrid debris and moved immediately to retrieve it.
"I went down around a quarter past six", 20 year old Vanita, a medical student at UCG, recalled yesterday (Tuesady). "The firemen were taking things from the building. It was one of the first things that caught my eye. Everything else was charred but the colour picture survived even though the flames had charred the edges".
ASTONISHMENT
Neighbours have been expressing astonishment that the picture survived.Mrs. Mary Shaughnessy, who accompanied the Currys to their last Mass on Friday night, said: "Our Lady's face never got burned even though the page was burned around the edges. Vanita took away the picture as souvenir for Rose".
The victims'sister, 72 year old Rose, survived the fire and was expected to attend the funerals in Knock yesterday (Tuesday).
Speaking at Mass in the old Apparition Church, Parish Priest Monsignor Dominick Grealy referred to the Currys deep faith and their closeness. "They have lived for the next life and now they are experiencing it", the Monsignor said.
This is the second such fire tragedy within a short time. Two years ago, Mr. Paddy Sloyan, a neighbour of the Currys, died in similar circumstances.
