It is just 25 years ago since Europe was plunged into a genocide we again ignored.
And just like the Holocaust of the Jews and Gypsies and homosexuals in the Forties the civilised West did not think the Balkans Muslims were worth protecting.
Camp of hell
Until too late.
I am indebted to my good friend Onur Gul, of Turkish Airlines www.turkishairlines.com who has family links to Bosnia-Herzegovina, for flagging up today.
And while you search for holiday providers, let me recommend Marian Pilgrimages’ sister company Croatia Tours www.croatia.ie who operate in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
But the Nobel Prize winner has lent great credibility and authenticity as Celebrity’s Godmother I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out To Here to their involvement in the destinations they visit.
Now I’m as guilty as the next man of glossing over Liam Neeson et al’s message to give on airlines… and then failing to fill those little envelopes.
But once I get back on a plane (and I mean that to be soon) I will ensure I empty my pockets into the envelope.
There are some out there who need no pricking of their conscience.
The Scots who give
And a square meal for all around the world
Such as Scots Magnus and Fergus MacFarlane who were so moved by an article in The Glasgow Herald on the Marian apparitions in a small Bosnian town that they went out there.
It’s 5.40pm in mid-October in Medjugorje and everyone and everything stops… for Our Lady, although check your times as I’m told it’s 6.40pm in the summer.
The fast-praying, gesticulating Italian priest (I’ll call him Fr Luigi) in his open-necked dog collar… it’s a balmy late afternoon.
Fr Leon, the wise-cracking, whip-cracking Chaplain to the English-speaking Community.
And the Irish Franciscan brother and pastor to the young, Brother Columba.
Who thankfully isn’t standing too close to the candles – he admits that he once burnt his navel-length beard at a procession.
Hurling posts anyone?
We are all marking the moment 38 years ago in 1981 when Our Lady appeared on a cloud to six children from the village.
Ivan Visionary
She can’t be much of a fan of teatime television then or maybe she had Neighbours on record.
It was certainly a half-time break back in 1981 in the big Yugoslavian basketball game which helped draw the two boys out.
Ivan Visionary (our guide Daniella’s nomenclature for him) will join us later in the week at the Blue Cross where Mary first appeared.
My way: And I’m saying me some rosaries
Although when I say join us, he is two rows of heads in front in a circle of worshippers.
I had hoped to see him in the ecstatic trance of those childhood photos on the boards in the grounds of St James’s Church.
Or heard some speaking in tongues. I know I’m unlikely to see Our Lady or hear her but Ivan Visionary has been on speaking terms with the Mother of God for 40 years.
Mary’s flower
I’ve every chance of seeing her though, or at least feel her presence, around Medjugorje which has expanded a millionfold since 1981.
Our Lady is everywhere
From that two-towered hurling posts-looking church, some tobacco fields and vines, to what it is today, a Marian resort dedicated to the worship of Her and Him.
And as with everywhere, Commercialism.
Our Lady is there in every shop on every corner, as are her beloved rosaries,
Where you can get your own name engraved on them.
Holy water bottle, anyone?
There are holy water bottles aplenty and any amount of religious paraphernalia including your own cassock.
Does it come in my size?
But Our Lady is also here in the minds, in the souls and the hearts of the pilgrims, of which I am one.
A mother and daughter in our 20-stong Marian Pilgrimages (http://www.marian.ie) group when we visit in October ask expectedly if I smelt the roses, Mary’s flower, as I make my way back from 10am Mass.
Try as I may, and maybe that’s where I’m going wrong, I can’t raise her.
But I do see Her in the eyes of eager Eddie who buries his head into his brother’s chest at the Blue Cross.
Bustling Medjugorje now
And who shoots a smile towards me from his wheelchair by Our Lady’s statue at the 5.40pm remembrance.
A cross to bear
A million flock to the Bosnia & Herzegovina village every year to feel the grace of Our Lady, to ask her to intercede on our behalfs to Our Lord.
And to climb up to the Blue Cross, Apparition Hill and Cross Mountain.
Many leave changed by their visit while many return year on year.
And there’s wine in them thar fields
Marie from our group is back for her 60th pilgrimage.
She is in with the bricks at Mileina, our boarding house for the week, where she embraces Ines’s daughter at the breakfast table, whom she has known since she was a baby.
Ines is the perfect mine host
Ines looks after us all like her very own babies with breakfasts to set us up in the morning, the best of which is the steaming porridge.
And for dinner where we settle down, after Grace Before Meals obviously, for big plates of family food, hearty soups and meaty feasts, chicken, lamb chops, potatoes (we are Irish after all) and veg.
Wine is a religion
With jugs of her own house wine.
I swear that ‘permanent’ house guest Marie gets an extra portion!
Like Marie, Medjugorje drew Scottish pilgrims Magnus and Fergus MacFarlane-Barrow back time after time following that first visit.
Mary’s Meals
To set up a support system for the village during the Balkan Wars in the mid-Eighties.
And then a charity for disadvantaged people around the world, Mary’s Meals, which feeds 1,000,000 children around the world for a €15 donation which energises them to then go to school.
It feels infectious this Christianity in action.
A holy Mother
Mother Elvira runs a rehab centre, Comunita Cenacolo, near the village while there is also an orphanage nearby.
We hear the testimony of Italian Twentysomething Andre, a dyslexic who suffered from Attention Deficit Disorder as a child and felt swamped in a family where his two brothers were super-achievers.
Can you hear my confession?
And whose life spiralled out of control, landing him on the street, in trouble with the law and twice overdosing.
Before Mother Elvira rescued him and is now setting him and others like him back on the right path.
Andre is now looking after maintenance in the house and serving the greater community, all of it underpinned by Christian observance.
Which is also the watchword for Medjugorje as a whole where your whole day is framed by Christian worship.
The ISIS hostage
Mass in the morning followed by a talk in the hall (we heard the extraordinary story of a priest who was an ISIS captive).
A part of history: Franz Ferdinand and Sophia
Those walks in the hills with Stations of the Cross along the way, the 5.40pm pause, an International Mass and an Adoration of the Host.
Phew!
There are though respites from your religious observations around the village.
And a coach out of town to Sarajevo for just €16 return where you can visit the spot where Gavrilo Princip assassinated the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and triggered the First World War.
Armie’s tale: He helped a Balkans survivor
And the Museum of Crimes against Humanity and Genocide which chronicles the 1,425-day Siege of Sarajevo in the 1980s.
Don’t miss Sarajevo
At the heart of this beautiful city on the River Miljacka in the apron of the Dinaric Alps is the Old Town, the centrepiece of which is the Bey Mosque.
Middle Eastern delights
Turkish shops, cafes and restaurants fan out, showpiecing authentic Bosnian food (I’d recommend the Bey’s chicken and vegetable soup, in the dainty adorned pots).
Bey’s Mosque: Everything’s looking up
Back in Medge, The Irish Centre serves up more familiar fare.
From home at under a tenner and Herzegovina beer (at just 5 B&H Marks or €2.50, they take both).
Oh, Brother!
And you’ll find an old new friend there, Columba, in with a fellow Fransiscan Brother to watch the Ireland v New Zealand rugby match with us.
As well as mending your soul he can fix the TV too when it freezes.
And a jaunt up to where they held the 1984 Winter Olympics
And it’s always good to have your own Franciscan monk on hand to say a prayer for Ireland to turn over ‘those New Zealanders’.
Our Lady is obviously busy though somewhere else with someone more deserving (really).
Up by the Blue Cross, Apparition Hill or Cross Mountain.
Asking us to pray more rosaries!
I’ll pray for youBey’s Mosque, Sarajevo
Do: The bus to Sarajevo costs €16 return (remember to bring your passport for money exchange).
Bey’s Mosque in the centre of Sarajevo and the Museum of Sarajevo for everything on the Assassination of Franz Ferdinand.
Seven-night trips including flights from Dublin to Dubrovnik cost from approx. €585pp, departing May 15. For packages see www.marian.ie and www.medjugorje.org.
Candles… in cartons for the night-time vigil, in the shops, giant ones at €60, and ones inscribed by everyone in the village in which they were carved.
The helpers wheeling the disabled, pilgrims quietly queuing in front of the baths.
St Bernadette hiding in the gardens around the model villages in Lourdes Castle and the interdit sign which a disobedient Scot will always ignore.
When AH were throwing a cocktails party and watching Thelma and Louise in Dublin.
Back to that Vegas and California break though.
American Holidays have San Fransisco, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
It includes return flights from Dublin to San Fransisco to Los Angeles to Las Vegas and return.
And three nights San Fran (Hotel Carlton or similar), three nights LA (Quality Inn Walk of Fame Hollywood or similar), four nights Las Vegas (Excalibur Hotel or similar).
From €1699pps/£1576. Travel May.
Everyone has their own Scary One. Photo by Gratisography on Pexels.com
I’ll return to my favourite foreign country, and American Holidays soon.
And just for you I’ll keep my eyes on the American sport, better still from the bleachers or a ringside seat.
Chocolate is better than men because… we’ve all seen those posters and mugs.
But sometimes it goes wrong.
Such as with the branding you sometimes get with sweets and chocolate.
My trip to Bosnia & Herzegovina with Marian Pilgrimages http://www.marian.ie gave so much, an audience with Our Lady in Medjugorje, a history lesson in Sarajevo.
And an insight into the peoples of this region, the crossroads of East and West in the Balkans.
In Medge they are Croatians with the only thing vying for space with Our Lady in the shops Croatian flags and football tops. Medjugorje, what’s your story?
My old mucker from university, Davor, a Croatian-Scot was my first introduction to them.
But I have come to know them better through Croatia Tours http://www.croatia.ie on the River Liffey in Dublin…
And joining them before the World Cup final against France for wine and lunch (it was never a penalty!)
Thankfully there was none of the chocolate I found in a petrol station on the way to the airport in Split.
Name blame: Sweets in the Balkans
There’s just no amount of thumbs-up with Victorian dandy that makes this right.
I’m guessing they’re lozenges but I put them back on the shelf.
I can’t imagine for a minute that they meant any harm but…
Then there are those brand gaffes where there’s just been no quality control.
