O GLORIOUS CHILDBEARER O glorious childbearer, O secret womb, O gilded bridechamber, from which hath come the sightly Bridegroom forth, O amber veil, Thou sittest in heaven, the white love of the Gael. Thy head is crowned with stars, thy radiant hair Shines like a river thro' the twilight air; Thou walkest by trodden ways and trackless seas, Immaculate of man's infirmities. -- Joseph Campbell (1879-1944) Knock, a parish in Co. Mayo where a vision of the Blessed Virgin was reported by 15 local people on 21 August 1879. Two ecclesiastical commissions examined the affair, one in 1879, the second in 1936, their conclusions permitting Knock's establishment as a centre of Marian pilgrimage. The Knock Shrine Committee was set up in 1935, and a folk museum in 1973, while a basilica was completed shortly afterwards . Knocks early success was part of the worldwide growth in devotion to the Virgin Mary and, in Ireland, was an arm of the so-called devotional revolution. The devotion associated with Knock was personal with a strong emotional appeal. Since the second Vatican Council more attention has been paid to its theological content and Knock's mission has extended itself into a broader pastoral programme. Like Croagh Patrick and Lough Derg, it has retained its popularity despite the changes in devotional practice associated with Vatican II. -- Excerpt, "The Oxford Companion ! to Irish History," ed. S. J. Connolly