A FUN side to a serious issue saw 1,436 “nuns” gather in a football field in Listowel on Saturday to raise funds for Pieta House suicide prevention charity and hopefully create a Guinness world record.
The previous record at Pinewood Studios in London involved 250 nuns in one place.
Nunday in Listowel saw both sexes, from a six-week-old to an 84-year-old grandmother, dress in standard black-and-white issue habits.
But they also included dozens of real nuns who had not worn a habit in 40 years.
“We wanted a bit of craic. We’ve had enough of the serious stuff. But we did not want to cause offence either. A lot of us had aunts who were nuns. One of the real nuns told me she hadn’t worn a habit in years,” columnist and publican Bill Keane, who, as a mother superior, was dressed in cardinal purple.
His mother Mary (84), widow of John B Keane, dressed as a nun and had to wait in the rain for two hours to be counted.
Mr Keane, who wrote recently about an encounter with suicide, joined forces with Cora O’Brien, the mother of a Listowel teenager who died by suicide five years ago, to raise funds and awareness.
The nuns’ habits came from costume companies as well as, in a few cases, from convents.
However, many more nuns than expected turned up on Saturday at Emmets Park in Listowel. Almost 200 people were rejected because they had the wrong shoes, or other misdemeanours, and so could not be counted.
“It was very strict,” Mr Keane said.
The event was recorded and audited by an independent accountant and gardaí.
The details are being sent to Guinness World Records officials.