WHAT WAS SEEN AT KNOCK IN 1879 AND WAS IT A PICTURE OR AN APPARITION?

ISSUE: A picture seen on a wall does not sound like much of a miracle. Many stories like that exist and we ignore them all. Is Knock vision a fleshed out trick of the sight?

Source: 1879 Depositions of Witnesses of "Apparition" of Mary, Joseph, John and angels on the gable of Knock Chapel.

After the reported two hour apparition, depositions were taken from the witnesses. There are clues in those statements. Was it a miracle or paranormal or something more natural?

UNDERLINED TEXT AT FACE VALUE INDICATES THE SUPERNATURAL OR INEXPLICABLE

THE BOLDED TEXT IS CLEAR EVIDENCE OF THE MAGIC LANTERN THEORY OR A NON-MIRACLE

THE REST DOESN'T INDICATE ONE WAY OR THE OTHER

THERE ARE FAR MORE BOLDED INDICATING THAT THE EVIDENCE FAVOURS A NATURAL INTERPRETATION

The fact that too many witnesses were young children is disturbing. There were plenty of adults in the village so where were they?

WITNESS	JOSEPH, MARY AND A BISHOP (allegedly APOSTLE JOHN)	FIGURES FLAT AGAINST WALL?
1 Patrick Hill Allegedly 13 or 14. In fact, believers lie about his age. As he was baptised in 1868 we may presume that he was born that year. People in those days did not delay baptism. Hill was 10 or 11 - far too immature to be taken seriously. He lied about his age for that reason.	Yes - standing a couple of feet from the ground	"full and round, as if they had a body and life". Note the "as if" - he was not sure. When "approached they seemed to go back a little towards the gable." Indicates that the roundness was an illusion and the images were not standing out from the wall.
WEEKLY NEWS 1880	SAME	The little wall was blocking the Currie child's view. Says he lifted Currie to see the images on the gable, not at it.
DAILY TELEGRAPH 1880		Stated that he was told the images were on the gable wall. "Oh, come up to the chapel, and see the Blessed Virgin against the wall".
WITNESS	JOSEPH, MARY AND A BISHOP (allegedly APOSTLE JOHN)	FIGURES FLAT AGAINST WALL?
2 Mary McLoughlin	Says she saw three appearances like the above entities.
WITNESS	JOSEPH, MARY AND A BISHOP (allegedly APOSTLE JOHN)	FIGURES FLAT AGAINST WALL?
3 Mary Beirne aged 26	Says she saw three appearances like the above entities standing a couple of feet above the ground. Is definite that the Mary figure was lifesize. She says she is not sure about the other two. She says they may have stood lower than her. But this is a mistake for she said the three stood a foot and a half or two feet from the ground. Not a single one of the other testimonies say the images were lifesize. They would have been asked by the Commission if they were. The Commission would have avoided the question if they were not lifesize as that would be a sign that the apparition was a joke played on them.	"they stood a little distance out from the gable wall" - this is not that reliable for she never went up close enough. She said that during Father Lennon's investigation, she was shown images from a magic lantern. She said they were trying to make pictures like what she saw but they could not make them like the apparition. She admitted later in life that the images were like they were painted on the wall - sounds like a possible magic lantern to me!
WEEKLY NEWS 1880	Calls them three white statues	"When you saw them first, did they seem to be up against the gable? "When we saw them first (that was from the wall of the schoolhouse), we thought they were a couple of feet out from the gable, and then, when we went on, they seemed to go back into the gable, and when we came close they looked as if they were standing against the wall. I put out my hand to touch them as they looked so solid and I found nothing." "An old woman came up to kiss the Blessed Virgin's feet" - no mention of the name of the woman or if she touched the feet. "Heavy rain fell from the south against the gable but no rain fell on the ground within two or three feet." "Was there a wind? No". "Was there any change in the appearance while you were looking at it? It was just the same all the time". "Why did you leave? We heard that a woman in the village Mrs Campbell was dying and we all made off to see her!". A lie - she would have already known the old lady was ill! In reply to the question as to how many people were there, she said, "I think there were about twelve". She stated that they were gone ten minutes and came back and the sight was gone.
1932 Testimony - not under oath	Appeared to be statues and Mary has a white crown and before she said it was gold	Seemed to stand out from wall but receded when approached
1935 testimony to Liam Ua Cadhain
1936 deathbed sworn statement for Commission	Knew they were not statues. They stood on top of grass. Starts to think Mary did not have her hands raised in prayer but down by her side.	"When we went near the wall, the figures seemed to go back to the wall, as if painted on it. Then when we came back from the wall, they seemed to stand out and come forward".
WITNESS	JOSEPH, MARY AND A BISHOP (allegedly APOSTLE JOHN)	FIGURES FLAT AGAINST WALL?
4 Patrick Walsh aged 65	Too far away to see the shapes.
WITNESS	JOSEPH, MARY AND A BISHOP (allegedly APOSTLE JOHN)	FIGURES FLAT AGAINST WALL?
5 Patrick Beirne aged 16	Yes.
1932 Testimony	Yes
1936 Sworn statement	Yes
WITNESS	JOSEPH, MARY AND A BISHOP (allegedly APOSTLE JOHN)	FIGURES FLAT AGAINST WALL?
6 Maggie Beirne	YES
WITNESS	JOSEPH, MARY AND A BISHOP (allegedly APOSTLE JOHN)	FIGURES FLAT AGAINST WALL?
7 Dominick Beirne	Yes - but described as three likenesses of those entities
WITNESS	JOSEPH, MARY AND A BISHOP (allegedly APOSTLE JOHN)	FIGURES FLAT AGAINST WALL?
8 Mrs Flatley	Yes, we don't know if the statues were on the ground because it has been known to put statues high up.	Doesn't say but says she thought they were statues but admitted she didn't pay too much attention
WITNESS	JOSEPH, MARY AND A BISHOP (allegedly APOSTLE JOHN)	FIGURES FLAT AGAINST WALL?
9 Bridget Trench aged 75	Yes - standing a couple of feet from the ground.	"I went in immediately to kiss, as I thought, the feet of the Blessed Virgin ; but I felt nothing in the embrace but the wall". The image must have been on the wall. Contradicts: "they appeared to me so full and so lifelike...that I could not understand why I could not feel them with my hands such as I beheld them with my eyes". Patrick Hill declared that she said the image went on the wall when she got too close "they receded, she said, from her".
WITNESS	JOSEPH, MARY AND A BISHOP (allegedly APOSTLE JOHN)	FIGURES FLAT AGAINST WALL?
10 Catherine Murray aged 8	Yes - but described as three likenesses of those entities
WEEKLY NEWS 1880	"I gathered from her that she had also seen the three figures on the gable." She said they were as big as Mary Beirne.
WITNESS	JOSEPH, MARY AND A BISHOP (allegedly APOSTLE JOHN)	FIGURES FLAT AGAINST WALL?
11 John Curry aged 6	"He saw the images — beautiful images — the Blessed Virgin and St Joseph." The reference to the Virgin and Joseph is just a note by the priest writing down the testimony. That is virtually admitted in the following, "He could state no more that he saw the fine images and the light, ... nice things and the lights." He only reported seeing images. He did not know what they were. He can be considered an exception - unlike him, the others all agreed that Mary and Joseph and a bishop appeared.
1937 New York Tribunal	Yes	Says Trench touched the picture. The images were then flat on the wall.
WITNESS	JOSEPH, MARY AND A BISHOP (allegedly APOSTLE JOHN)	FIGURES FLAT AGAINST WALL?
12 Judith Campbell	Yes - but described as three likenesses of those entities - stood a foot from them implying they were near the ground
WITNESS	JOSEPH, MARY AND A BISHOP (allegedly APOSTLE JOHN)	FIGURES FLAT AGAINST WALL?
13 Margaret Beirne 2	Yes
WITNESS	JOSEPH, MARY AND A BISHOP (allegedly APOSTLE JOHN)	FIGURES FLAT AGAINST WALL?
14 Dominick Beirne Sen	Yes - but described as three likenesses of those entities
WITNESS	JOSEPH, MARY AND A BISHOP (allegedly APOSTLE JOHN)	FIGURES FLAT AGAINST WALL?
15 John Durkan	It is merely stated that he gave the same testimony as the Beirnes. Thus we have no testimony from him at all. The priests who were investigating hadn't a clue how to check the story. What would you think of a courtcase where a lawyer saying witness 2 said the same thing as witness 1 so witness 2 doesn't need to testify?