GREAT DAY FOR IRELAND AT FATIMA.

Carefully preserved in the Sanctuary Treasury ever since, the Monstrance is only rarely on display. It is regarded as one of the most precious sacred objects at the shrine. Apart from the beautiful workmanship, it contains 1,750 jewels, including 650 diamonds. Made of silver it is heavily gilt, and is fitted with an 18ct gold Lunette.

The presentation of the Monstrance to the shrine was the idea of a Mayo woman, the late Mrs. Kathleen Conroy who was living in Clontart, Dublin at the time. She wished to express her thanksgiving to Our Lady for a special favour received a couple of years previously. While praying in a Co. Mayo church to where her family had many years previously donated a Monstrance, the thought came to her that a Monstrance from Ireland for her rapidly developing shrine in Fatima would surely be pleasing to her.

With the aid of her Galway-born husband, the late Joseph Keiron Conroy, who in 1948 was the honorary agent in Ireland for the monthly paper “Voice of Fatima”, she got together a group of supporters who sought from their friends voluntary gifts of gold and jewellery.

No public appeal was made, but gifts began to arrive in such profusion and variety that the original design of the Monstrance had to be repeatedly altered and expanded to more ambitious proportions.

The design and manufacture of the Monstrance was carried out by the Dublin firm of Gunnings, who had their showroom sin Fleet Street opposite the E.S.B. and many people will remember seeing the Monstrance on display there before its departure for Fatima.

Forty-two inches in height, the Monstrance is built on a four-panelled base representing the four provinces of Ireland, while the stem consists of a beautiful gilt crowned representation of Our Lady of Fatima.

The Monstrance was brought to Fatima by an Irish Dominican group of 450 pilgrims. It was presented to the shrine on October 6, 1949, the eve of the feast of the Most Holy Rosary, by Dr. Finbarr Ryan, O.P., Archbishop of Port of Spain, and author of one of the first comprehensive books in English on the Fatima events.