August 1985 saw the first reports of a moving statue in Ballinspittle. 30 years ago Ireland was a different place (except for the weather) as you can see in this RTE News from the time.
This August will be the 30th anniversary of the first reports of moving statues in Ballinspittle. It’s easy to forget how things seemed back then but here’s the news read by Anne Doyle to remind us.
It’s interesting to realise that when this was filmed Ireland was in the midst of a long ongoing economic depression. Emigration was close to 100,000 per year and Divorce, Condoms and Homosexuality were all illegal. Almost no-one beyond English, Dutch and Germans moved here, and many of those were holiday-home owners due to low property prices.
But Ireland was on the edge of major changes and in a short period nearly all that changed, culminating in the recent Marriage Referendum.
So while things are bad now it’s worth thinking about how much bleaker they were back then. The one thing that hasn’t changed however is our weather as the forecast at the end shows!
And here’s a BBC report from the same time
