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Garda Press Office

Preserved heart of Dublin saint stolen from Christ Church Cathedral

The relic of the 12th century preserved heart has disappeared from its place in the city centre cathedral.

THE HEART OF Saint Laurence O’Toole has been stolen from Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin.

Gardaí in Kevin Street are investigating the theft of the 12th century relic from Saint Lauds Chapel within the cathedral. They believe the theft occurred sometime between yesterday evening and 12.30pm today.

They are now appealing for assistance from the public.

The Heart of Saint Laurence O’Toole is kept in a wooden heart-shaped container sealed within a small iron barred box. Inside is the preserved heart of the one-time archbishop St Laurence O’Toole who was born Lorcán Ua Tuathail in Kildare in 1128.

He was canonised by Pope Honorius III in 1225.

Gardai wish to speak to anyone who may have visited Saint Lauds Chapel in Christ Church Cathedral between yesterday evening and today at 12.30pm and seen anything unusual or suspicious. They have also appealed for anyone who may be in a position to assist with the investigation to contact them at Kevin Street at 01- 6669400, the Garda Confidential Telephone Line 1800 666 111 or any Garda Station.

‘Valuable’ tabernacle stolen from Dublin church>

‘Relics of true cross’ returned to abbey after being stolen>

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84 Comments
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    Mute Paddy Behan
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 4:53 PM

    Heartless thing to do.

    257
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    Mute jrbmc
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 8:18 PM

    Heartless bastards!

    32
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    Mute Gerard Murphy
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 10:39 PM

    Don’t worry, they’ll be caught. They’ll soon realise it was all in vein.

    21
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    Mute Gerard Murphy
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 10:51 PM

    What did they expect, Kevin Street is a major artery through the capital.

    14
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    Mute toorkeel
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 5:19 PM

    Morons. What is wrong with people.

    125
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    Mute Joe Sixtwo
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 7:16 PM

    The people who stole the heart, the ones that display it or both?

    26
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    Mute Eileen Gabbett
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 5:42 PM

    FFS
    That is disgraceful .
    What value is this to anyone but the people of the church …..

    117
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    Mute Noddy Mooney
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 5:48 PM

    I’m at a loss to see what value it could be to anyone, particularly the church.

    45
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    Mute toorkeel
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 6:27 PM

    It’s a relic. That’s its value

    61
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    Mute Laura Purcell
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 7:36 PM

    2nd relic in 6 months thats gone missing
    no value to anyone other than a catholic….

    28
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    Mute David Murphy
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    Mar 4th 2012, 11:02 AM

    No value to anyone except Catholics? I’d say worth a fortune on the black market. There’s all sorts of weirdos out there who buy stuff like this. Remember the Auschwitz sign?

    1
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    Mute Eileen Gabbett
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    Mar 4th 2012, 1:58 PM

    I believe that Relic was returned thttp://www.thurles.info/2012/01/17/holycross-reunited-with-stolen-relic-of-true-cross/ Christ Church Cathedral is not a Catholic Church , it is Church Of Ireland,…Christian ! … However I believe the value of this relic of Tt Lawrence O Toole is important to ”collectors”of such artefacts… I am not a religious person , but this theft is shocking and I hope it is returned asap.

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    Mute Paul Doyle
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 6:16 PM

    Y ate a lot of people mocking n belittling this theft, if this was a muslim or Jewish relic that had been stolen n people mocked they’d b accused of racism !!! This is gonna make a lot of people very sad n I don’t c the need ta mock or joke about it….

    114
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    Mute Cyril Butler
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 7:57 PM

    No they are all crazy.

    26
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    Mute Sean Mc Avinue
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 10:12 PM

    They would also be cowards to slag if it were Muslem.

    12
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    Mute Cyril Butler
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 10:19 PM

    Would you have us bring in the Catholic equivalent of Sharia law Sean? Always good to know there are still Christians who hold the Islamic world as an example on how to treat religion. Sorry Sean our country is all the better for people like me having the freedom to make jokes at the craziness of our species before it consumes us and makes us like the defunct Islamic societies you so admire.

    21
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    Mute Gerard Murphy
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 10:43 PM

    Paul, can we mock or joke about your text speak so instead?

    13
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    Mute Gerard Murphy
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 10:46 PM

    I agree with Paul, Jewish jokes are offensive Anne Frankly, I won’t stand for it.

    38
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    Mute Frank Conroy
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    Jan 4th 2014, 11:56 PM

    Check your spelling?

    1
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    Mute Shanti Om
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 5:53 PM

    No matter what anyone thinks of the church it’s wrong to steal. Especially something that would mean so much to those it is stolen from.

    Although I agree with whoever said it was strange to be hanging on to body parts – surely that would be desecrating the body? I thought that was something the church was opposed to?

    98
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    Mute Keith Banks
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 5:29 PM

    a heart locked in a cage. symbolism indeed.

    96
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    Mute Karl O Flynn
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 6:35 PM

    Keith, you have said it all there for me. Good job!!!

    32
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    Mute Gearoid Walsh
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    Mar 4th 2012, 9:08 AM

    Catholicism is such a morbid religion. A black heart in a cage. A man on a cross. It’s amazing they manage to make something with all kinds of shades of satanism and S&M (I’m not even being funny or facetious) come across as any kind of spirituality. I guess it’s the nature of evil to call itself something else.

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    Mute David Murphy
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    Mar 4th 2012, 11:00 AM

    Did you ever see Dogma? One of the characters at one point says that Catholics do not celebrate their faith, they mourn it.

    6
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    Mute Louise Hannon
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 5:20 PM

    Never fear the Gards will get to the heart of the matter

    85
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    Mute Jambbie
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 5:24 PM

    No lightheartedness on the Journal please.. Too many red thumbers on here too busy saving the world to have a giggle.

    60
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    Mute Hugh Chaloner
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 5:40 PM

    Kinda stupid thing to nick, who’s going to buy it?

    83
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    Mute Bren Dan
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 5:59 PM

    Mr. Burns.

    89
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    Mute Gerard Murphy
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 10:41 PM

    Tinman might want a look in….

    36
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    Mute Louth
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 6:07 PM

    Looks like the tinman is the main suspect

    79
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    Mute Ste whistler
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 10:27 PM

    Dammit that was my joke.. Lucky i didn’t get ahead of myself and checked the comments.. ..ahead.. Why couldn’t a head have been stolen??

    9
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    Mute Eileen Gabbett
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    Mar 4th 2012, 2:37 PM

    St Oliver’s head is in Drogheda ? ?

    1
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    Mute Ryan Murphy
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 5:03 PM

    You sure that’s iron? Looks a lot like copper or bronze (maybe it’s just paint?), which would be a fair indication as to why it was nicked.

    74
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    Mute Derek Mahony
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 5:43 PM

    Enda kenny nicked it, well he has no heart of his own!!!!

    72
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    Mute Cyril Butler
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 5:04 PM

    In other breaking news the spleen of St. Augustine was stolen and the appendix of St. Bartholomew.

    70
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    Mute James Oliver
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 5:18 PM

    Have some respect please

    190
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    Mute Noddy Mooney
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 5:45 PM

    Respect for what? What is it with religions (mostly christian as far as I know) and parts of human remains? What respect is shown to this blokes memory be having his heart as a keepsake? I thought it was the soul that mattered.

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    Mute Joe Sixtwo
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 6:42 PM

    Check out second hand hearts on ebay, might turn up there.

    62
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    Mute Spud Murphy
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 7:16 PM

    Don’t worry James, once all the pieces have been put together, the mighty Frankensaint will teach him to respect the church.

    39
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    Mute Spud Murphy
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 7:18 PM

    But seriously, surely carving the heart from a corpse and locking it in an iron box for hundreds of years is lacking in respect, don’t you think?

    57
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    Mute Cyril Butler
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 7:42 PM

    Im sorry for anyone who feels the need to have respect for stuff like that. What have we become keeping the organs of dead people? The most favourable thing anyone can do is laugh at it. But is also a bit sick and disguisting.

    40
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    Mute Chelseajoe
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 7:49 PM

    There are several foreskins of Christ around Europe. Im not kidding.

    27
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    Mute John Johnson
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    Mar 4th 2012, 11:36 AM

    @Noddy, You ask respect for what ? Respect for others views, opinions and rights

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    Mute Noddy Mooney
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    Mar 4th 2012, 1:22 PM

    @John. I have every respect for the views and opinions of others. It’s the disrespectful deeds I have a problem with.
    Did Laurence O’Toole give his permission for his hearty to be taken from his body and displayed in public? If he did then fair enough. But if he didn’t, then I find the display of his heart an appalling and utterly disrespectful deed, in much the same way many (including the religious) condemned the recent body parts exhibition.

    2
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    Mute Eileen Gabbett
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    Mar 4th 2012, 2:29 PM

    Actually all religions deserve respect .
    I will say that find some of the
    comments quite humorous :)
    In other religions they have very strict protocols involving their religious
    texts, for instance, and how and even who handles them ….

    1
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    Mute Cyril Butler
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    Mar 4th 2012, 3:38 PM

    Eileen If you wish to grant respect to Iron age primitive folklore that is your right. But you cannot demand it from others. Those who would demand such respect need to be challenged. What people wish to do in private is their business but when nonsense is preached in public then rational people have a duty to stand up to it.

    3
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    Mute Eileen Gabbett
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    Mar 4th 2012, 4:01 PM

    Cyril ,
    I have not ”demanded” any such thing . I have asked just as many other posters have done to respect peoples beliefs .
    I am not overly religious , I don’t ”pray ” to relics, however I respect other people’s right to do so
    and that is what I am asking people to respect ….Other people’s right to their beliefs.
    I have not preached anything , nor have I seen anyone else preaching…
    I respect your beliefs too. :)

    2
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    Mute David Conroy
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 5:10 PM

    What an odd relic..

    68
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    Mute Buckwheat MacMillan
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 5:57 PM

    I keep old toenail clippings

    60
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    Mute Jambbie
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 4:54 PM

    I’d say it was someone from Chelsea. They’ve lacked heart all season.

    62
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    Mute micktwatter
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 6:11 PM

    Fianna Fail is in town. Coincidence?

    55
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    Mute Sheila Murphy
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    Mar 4th 2012, 12:20 PM

    lol mick – very good – :-)

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    Mute Joe Sixtwo
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 6:39 PM

    That’s the second time at least that this body part has been stolen, we can only hope he was dead the first time it was stolen.

    33
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    Mute Ryan Murphy
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 7:00 PM

    I’d take that as a given, whether it was still working when they took it out, or not.

    ;)

    As regards the cage-seems it was iron after all, and open on the side facing the wall, so they didn’t need to nick it with the heart. Strange.

    11
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    Mute Matt Harley
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 7:18 PM

    I would be curious to know how such a relic survived the Reformation and in a Protestant church, to boot!

    27
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    Mute Chelseajoe
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    Mar 4th 2012, 12:04 AM

    High Anglican church. Not a huge difference between that and Catholicism.

    8
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    Mute Padraic Cafferty
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 7:52 PM

    a heartless crime. no. wait…

    25
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    Mute jimbo
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    Mar 4th 2012, 12:07 AM

    This is so sad and the people/person involved obviously have no brain…

    22
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    Mute Cyril Butler
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    Mar 4th 2012, 1:05 AM

    Hannibal Lecter was hungry but obviously hadnt checked the best before date.

    16
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    Mute Tom Blake
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 8:49 PM

    It’s a terrible crime and I don’t condone any type of thieft but, why is a person’s heart on display in the first place? It seems very medieval to me.

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    Mute Julian Sandford
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 9:03 PM

    It is medieval, why do people try to judge this from our modern viewpoint? It was probably an object of much veneration in the 12th century, and still important enough to someone today to want to steal it!

    49
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    Mute Marko Burns
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 9:50 PM

    Have they checked the Halfpenny Bridge yet? it’s probably locked to the railings ;)

    19
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    Mute B7584
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 10:01 PM

    Somewhere,right now theres a junkie trying to flog it for €5 to put towards a bag of skag.

    19
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    Mute Brendan Peters
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 10:37 PM

    I’d say enda Kenny took it, he has very little heart a 12th century one could help. All he needs now is a brain and a set of balls and we might get out of this mess
    Wait………… Maybe he could give it to the IMF he seems determined to sell off all our other assets…..what would we get for The book of Kells

    11
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    Mute Cyril Butler
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 7:48 PM

    We are having a bit of a crusade here tonight. Popular or not I will always call out dumb stuff for what it is.

    11
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    Mute Denis Walsh
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 11:55 PM

    Cyril, everytime I see your face pop up on a story I can’t help thinking about Tom from Fr Ted. You’re the image of him. Have you got a T-shirt which says “I shot JR”?

    21
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    Mute Cyril Butler
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    Mar 4th 2012, 12:04 AM

    Tis my money I just didnt want to fill out the forms.

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    Mute Irish-in-USA
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    Mar 4th 2012, 6:51 AM

    Watch that chip or your shoulder, its getting bigger by the hour!

    4
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    Mute Cyril Butler
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    Mar 4th 2012, 1:01 PM

    @Irish-in-USA In the presence of crazy stuff that chip gets a lot bigger.

    4
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    Mute Sean Smith
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    Mar 4th 2012, 12:47 AM

    Perhaps it ascended?

    What a creepy place the religious mind must be to not be disgusted by this zombie worship.

    10
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    Mute David Giles
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    Mar 4th 2012, 2:09 AM

    It came as a surprise to me that the heart of St Laurence O’ Toole was in Christ Church Cathedral. The retention of body parts was indeed a medieval practice and the fact that St Laurence’s heart was in Christ Church until now must be a bit of a miracle considering what has happened in Ireland since he died so many centuries ago. Such relics were often disposed of during the Reformation and succeeding episodes such as Cromwell’s campaigns in the 17th century.

    The custodians of Christ Church must have been rather ingenious and devoted to have been able the retain the heart through all the centuries. In many ways it symbolises the continuous historical connection between the Church of Ireland and the ancient Irish Church prior to the English Pope Adrian’s authorisation of the Anglo-Norman invasion.

    It will be interesting to see if it will ever be found and if the thieves are ever caught.

    21
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    Mute Soccers Gossip
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 9:09 PM
    10
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    Mute MaryHelen K
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    Mar 4th 2012, 9:57 AM

    The preservation of saints bodies continues today, whereas particular body parts may have been preserved, typically the entire corpse is preserved. Though it may seem odd, the reason a saint becomes an officially recognised saint is due to miracles occurring after death. Most saints are recognised after people receive healing at their grave or their relics. Many saints have been exhumed to show that they are incorrupt, St Bernadette is still perfectly preserved. I have received a blessing from a first class relic and was healed. I can understand how it seems medieval but when you understand relics it’s simply miraculous. St Pio’s body emitted a sweet smell long after death, so the soul is important but the remains can heal.

    8
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    Mute Cyril Butler
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    Mar 4th 2012, 12:09 PM

    Padre Pio was a fraud and a con man.

    7
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    Mute Gerard Murphy
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    Mar 4th 2012, 1:46 PM

    Maryhelen, I’m glad you are better.
    But……this whole relic nonsense, and even more so – first class relics???
    What a load of superstitions tosh.
    What about the people who have received blessings from so called relics who did not get cured?
    Could there be something else at play? Like medicine perhaps, or good doctors?
    I’ve never heard of a miracle where someone with no legs suddenly grows a pair…..

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    Mute Spud Murphy
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    Mar 4th 2012, 4:03 PM

    @MaryHelen K: It wasn’t the Holy Stone of Clonrickert was it? Ah no, wait, that was only a Class 3 relic…

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    Mute Randy savage
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    Mar 4th 2012, 1:34 PM

    sccumbags id love to kick the head off whoever robbed that, what sort of vermin regenerate tool would steal that.

    6
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    Mute Gerard Murphy
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    Mar 4th 2012, 1:41 PM

    One who knows what a degenerate is?

    7
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    Mute Joanne Cussen
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    Mar 4th 2012, 12:21 AM

    Or no heart

    6
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    Mute Derek Richardson
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    Mar 4th 2012, 10:28 AM

    put it with the head in drogheda in and thats the brain and the heart all we need now is courage and the country might just get back back to normality!! oh i for got we still have to go to oz

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    Mute Ian Conway
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    Mar 3rd 2012, 7:23 PM

    Maybe Kurt Cobain needed back.

    5
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    Mute Andrew Lyall
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    Mar 4th 2012, 3:04 AM

    Part of James II’s body is in a church in St Germain-en-Laye near Paris. Irrelevant comment, but interesting.

    3
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    Mute Francis Stokes
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    Mar 4th 2012, 9:06 AM

    It seem to be ongoing we had two more incidents where there were relics take from Churches.What is their problem. It is of no monetary value. Maybe the box that was containing the relic was the target .

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    Mute Mary Langtry
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    Mar 4th 2012, 3:34 AM

    Where is the rest of this boy? Maybe the corpse/ skeleton has a heart now!

    2
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