A memorial has been unveiled in County Mayo to commemorate Dame Judy Coyne, the founder of the Knock Shrine Society. The unveiling took place at a service to recall Mrs Coyne’s life and times was held in Guisden Cemetery in Belcarra, near where she lived.
Mrs Coyne, who died in 2002, was a major promoter of devotion to Our Lady of Knock, and as part of that, co-founded the Knock Shrine Society with her husband Liam in 1935.
She became the first person in Ireland to receive the Dame of Sylvester honour which was conferred on her in 1997 at Knock Basilica.
Mrs Coyne’s niece, Ethna Kennedy, who wrote a biography of her entitled ‘Providence My Guide’ said her aunt had always shied away from publicity during her life but “she ought to be remembered. A lot of people are unaware of the great work Judy did over such a long time at Knock,” she explained. Much of that stems from the fact that she didn't want any publicity and didn't want to take the credit for anything.”
“The BBC was due to call one day and she sent someone who was in the house with her out to essentially run them away!” Ms Kennedy recalled. She said that because Judy Coyne was so publicity-shy, nobody knew anything about her huge work for Knock.
“She was a visionary - when she started the Knock Shrine Society in 1935, she suggested the airport at Knock,” she revealed. “She was the Society - parish priests came and went at Knock but she was a constant,” said Ms Kennedy.
"The formation of the Society in the 1930s revived an interest in the then almost forgotten shrine at Knock and plenty of observers will credit Judy Coyne with beginning a journey that would bring Knock to its current status as one of the principal Marian shrines in the world.”
Mrs Coyne set up a corps of helpers at Knock knows known as ‘Handmaids’ and ‘Stewards.’
She organised the first major pilgrimage to Knock in 1953 – which no fewer than 50,000 Pioneers from Dublin attended.
Mrs Coyne was also one of the first to propose that the Pope should visit Knock and from as early as 1964 started advocating a Papal visit to the Shrine for the 1979 centenary of the apparition.
Ms Kennedy said Mrs Coyne continued working on her Knock project until a few days before she died at the age of 97.
Monsignor Joseph Quinn, parish priest of Knock, who performed the official blessing at the unveiling, called Mrs Coyne a remarkable woman who was “deeply in the course and development of Knock Shrine for more than 70 years.”
He said it was fitting that the plaque was unveiled just after 150,000 pilgrims attended at Knock to celebrate the 130th anniversary of the apparition.
Monsignor Quinn said the 30th anniversary of Pope John Paul’s visit to Knock in 1979 was also being commemorated and Mrs Coyne was “so important in making that visit a reality.”
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