The residents of a block of flats have witnessed something of a miracle after a filthy statue they believe to represent the Virgin Mary turned out to be a statue of Jesus instead, after a deep clean.
The grotto that was thought to be in honour of Our Lady outside Dublin's Leo Fitzgerald House has been the centre of life in the block for years, and a point of reference for the entire community.
However, none of them knew that it wasn't Mary at all, but her son Jesus.
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That's until they used to opportunity presented by the coronavirus pandemic to have a community spring clean, and discovered that the statue was just filthy, and the true identity was revealed.
The whole community came together the other week to do a bit of weeding, trim back the hedges, and give the place an all-around sprucing up.
That included giving the religious statue a chemical clean in order to get it sparkling once again. However, instead of merely cleaning it, they realised that they'd been wrong about it all these years.
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As the years of dirt rolled back, the statue that once was thought to be the Holy Mary revealed a secret that had long gone unnoticed.
Resident Louise Dowdall told Dublin Live that neither she nor the rest of the community for which the statue has long been a focal point can believe the transformation, and they have started referring to the hilarious incident as the 'Immaculate Deception'.
That's a reference to the Virgin Mary's Immaculate Conception of Jesus, in case you're not aware of the joke.
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She explained: "It's gas. It's not Mary at all - it's actually her son Jesus. We had a good laugh at it. For years everyone thought it was Mary, even the older folks who've been here for generations.
"Everyone has had a good laugh about it - when I look at it now, it's hard to believe we all thought it was Mary for all these years."
She continued: "Even the older residents of the flats all thought it was Mary - everyone has done for years. Everyone's saying they can't believe they thought he was Mary for so long."
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However, because it's long been a meeting point for resident and locals, some people are now getting confused when told to meet at 'Mary' and being confronted with a statue of Jesus.
Louise added: "People often use the statue as a meeting point.
"A chap earlier on was saying that he was meant to meet someone and he said, 'I'm around at the Mary statue,' and people are saying to him saying, 'There is no Mary statue.'
"People are getting confused, thinking they're in the wrong place altogether.
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"I don't know how nobody ever noticed it to be fair. He even has the sacred heart and everything - it's plainly Jesus. It's very funny."
Featured Image Credit: RW Window CleaningTopics: Ireland, Funny, Fail, Weird