Judy Coyne (Dame Judy Coyne)

Life

Judy Coyne, born Judy Begley, was the youngest of eleven children of a farming family in Claremorris, County Mayo. In 1924 she married the solicitor and future District Justice Liam Coyne, and the couple settled at Bridgemount House near Belcarra, just outside Castlebar.

A pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1934 changed the course of her life. Struck by the order and care with which pilgrims, particularly the sick, were received at the French shrine, Judy and Liam returned to Mayo convinced that something similar could and should be done for Knock. In 1935, together, they founded the Society for the Promotion of Knock Shrine. From their home at Bridgemount they organised stewarding, the care of sick pilgrims, processions, and the systematic collection of testimony from witnesses of the apparition who were still living. The first Knock Shrine Annual appeared in 1938 and would run for decades; Judy was its editor for many years after her husband's death in 1953.

For the next half-century Judy Coyne was the public face of the Knock Shrine Society. She lobbied successive bishops of Tuam, raised funds for the new basilica, organised the Stewards and Handmaids of the shrine, and prepared the way for Pope John Paul II's 1979 pilgrimage to Knock on the centenary of the apparition.

Her service was twice recognised by the Holy See: she received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal — the highest papal decoration that can be conferred on a woman — and was made a Dame of the Order of Saint Sylvester, the first Irish woman ever to be so honoured. She also published a memoir of her life and work, Providence My Guide. Dame Judy Coyne died on 24 April 2002 and is buried with Liam in the Old Cemetery at Knock.