Apart from being home to politicians with peculiar views on climate change, Co. Kerry also harbors people with somewhat odd religious beliefs.
75-year-old Tom Powers from the Kingdom claims to own an effigy of the Virgin Mary that, according to him, moves on its own accord, and changes colour and/or weeps depending on its mood.
Mr. Power’s portentous statue is currently located in his ‘healing surgery,’ a place of local pilgrimage where the sick flock to be healed by the power of the weeping statue.
According to the man of God, people with serious medical conditions pay a visit to his ‘healing surgery’ for a bit of healing craic and a dose of manna.
Mr. Power said “Things happen here every week that you could call miracles.
“But of course it’s not about me, it’s all to do with the statue.
“She wants to show herself to her people.”
Mr. Powers, who is not stranger to celebdom, has been promoting his direct line to God since the 1980s, and was once the subject of a Channel 4 documentary.
He claims that it all started for him while he was inside the kitchen of his humble abode. A bright light overcame him, and next thing he knew, he woke up blind. Ever since then, Mr. Powers -who miraculously regained his sight after the bright light incident- claims he speaks to God directly.