The Miraculous Tales of Mickey McGuigan True North

FOX CRIES

MUSIC: "Make Me A Miracle" by Jimmie Rodgers.

# Make me a miracle

# Make me a miracle

# Make me a miracle, my love

# I'm only a cup

# Make me a chalice

# I'm only a hut

# Make me a palace

# I can be as wild as a bumble bee

# And fly with the eagles above

# I don't care whatever you make of me

# Just make me your love

# Just make me your love

# Make me a miracle

# Make me a miracle

# Make me a miracle... #

Well, years ago, before there was helicopters,

there was a witch lived down here in this pantry.

It's called the Witch's Fort.

And she could come along on a broomstick

and she was that bad that she could cut the head off a person

and just take their head and dump it.

But there's none of them about now. They were all done away with.

After the witches left, the English army came.

It was a notorious change.

The English army liked to fly about in helicopters.

This is where the helicopters comes down.

And it looks as though there was a slurry tank, as well,

when the army was here.

And up here, the army post was all right round here

and there was rows of barbed wire all round the whole place.

I'll try and get you down the handiest way I can, now.

I lived all my life here during the past 73 years in County Armagh,

where the border of the north meets the Free State of Ireland.

There used to be money made from the land, but that's all changed now.

The only business I see booming is the fireworks factory.

Another business that's doing well at the present time

is the medical business.

Oh! Oh!

It's hard to believe,

but there's an awful lot of things that can be cured without medicine.

One character that has cures is Eamonn McDermott from Ballylynan.

He specialises in getting rid of ringworm.

If it's not treated in time,

it could wipe out a whole herd of stock.

Can you give me the bucket?

It'll take a wee while, like.

He just spits on the ringworm and off it goes like a flash.

That's it.

What were you doing there?

-Making the sign of the cross in the ground, just.

-What does that do?

Well, that's it finished. That's part of the cure, like.

-Part of the ringworm?

-That's part of the cure.

-Ah, I see.

-That's the job. That's the job now.

And it's not just the animals that can be healed, it's people as well.

Of course, people is animals, anyhow.

If you look round the country and talk to some of the people,

you can find a cure for nearly everything.

Joe put the dog out. On the way out, the dog bit Joe and pulled it...

bit his whole hand. After the mission was over, Joe says,

"Look at that there, Father" and he just spat on it like that

and he said the next morning, there wasn't a trace of it.

Gone. Gone completely.

Another good one was the warts.

The warts is a snail. Rubbing a snail on it.

If you rub a black snail on a wart and stick it on a thorn bush,

a black thorn bush, as it withers away,

-the warts wear away.

-That's right.

-The warts will go.

And it definitely works, all right?

He said that's the only miracle he ever saw.

If you were completely baldy, get yourself a goat

and remove its bladder, fill it with urine,

then hang it up in the chimney, till it's as dry as a bone.

Then grind it up and, with a little onion, rub it into your scalp.

That should do the trick.

You hear good stories about cures and about miracles and all that.

You see, most of the educated people, including priests

and even government officials, they had all the history,

and they let it all go, they took it to their graves with them.

No-one else was to know anything, only the smart people, years ago.

That's how history was lost.

And then other people had to come along,

and there was an awful job piecing everything together.

You know, there will be bits missing here and there.

You're doing your best to...

Well, to revive everything.

I'm collecting all these old stories about cures

and lots of other things, as well.

They've gone into my new book.

That's a wee typewriter I got for £35 about ten years ago.

They were, kind of, out of date then.

But you can still buy the spools for them.

-Hi, Pete, your brother's writing his stories.

-Oh!

There was a 70-year-old frisky man from Creeve,

and he was out for a walk with his wife

and he seen a young girl on the road and he run after her.

He shouted and whistled.

I don't think much of stories.

It can be dangerous. There are some people awful, er,

sensitive, like...

..you know, if you put anything in about them.

Pete's not so sure if these things should be published,

but no-one's complained in the past.

This book is only the truth about miracles.

There was a young woman from County Louth

and she took the shingles.

The doctor said himself that he couldn't cure her

and that she'd have to get the curer.

So, she went to the man in the scheme.

He took her out to the garden and he says,

"I'm looking for clay that never got the sun

"and that there's no worms in. I have to dig down a bit to get it."

So, he got some of the clay

and she got the surprise of her life.

He put some of the clay on her head...

..and he told her to come back in another three days.

She said she got cured and it never came back to her.

Oh, it's a mystery, surely, how it works. It is, aye.

I wouldn't know how it works. I don't know why.

I suppose The Almighty had something to do with it.

Pat O'Rourke has a special gift and is able to cure sprains

and he wants to pass it on to his granddaughter,

hopefully, before he kicks the bucket.

And another thing - when the seventh son of a seventh son is born,

in some areas, they put a live worm in the heart of that child's hand.

And that worm dies.

And once that worm dies,

that child has the cure for everything.

Really?

Well, so they say.

They're what you call faith healers.

There can't be many of them left.

There wouldn't be many these times,

but I think there's about five in Ireland, at the minute.

If you're bleeding and you can't get it to stop, just get Pat Traynor.

Is there many of the younger generation taking it on?

Well, that's what we don't know.

Well, maybe not as many.

And have you passed them on to anyone, Pat, your cures?

No. I wouldn't...

I mean to it.

-You told me them.

-Oh, I know I did.

This cure goes back generations in that particular family.

It's awful, cos he was crying from ten o'clock in the morning

and cried right through till eight

the next morning. They admitted him into the hospital, so they did.

Now, if a child won't stop crying because of the colic,

Mary Brady will fix it. Better than any doctor.

Where I'm from, there's loads of people live beside us

have had it done with their kids and they recommended it.

Young people wouldn't want much to do with cures,

cos it takes up their time.

They won't do anything unless they're getting

a handful of money for it.

I hope they never fade away.

That's the whole of it.

Oh, yes!

Where's my boy?

Where is my boy?

It's a knot in the gut,

and I use the string to release that knot.

-The children are very important to you, aren't they?

-Yeah. Yeah.

They're great.

-How many children do you have yourself?

-I have no family.

-No family.

-Oh.

No. No family.

I do have nieces and nephews. Good nieces and good nephews.

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace,

where there is despair, hope,

and where there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled

as to console.

To be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love,

for it is in giving that we receive,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

St Francis of Assisi.

-Who put that there, do you think?

-I don't know.

-Oh.

-I never even noticed it was there.

-Really?

-No.

-Would it be your mum that put it there?

-It could've been.

Was she a religious woman?

Kinda.

She always went to mass.

-Do you go to mass?

-The odd time.

-The odd time?

-Aye.

I don't be too particular.

-Do you want a cup of tea?

-Aye.

Here's a lucky charm, St Brigid's Cross.

It's a Celtic cross made out of rushes,

in honour of St Brigid.

Patron saint of Faughart, County Louth.

It's meant to ward off spirits.

That's evil spirits.

That's only a wee cross that I made,

and that's a doll.

-I just nailed that on.

-And why did you make it?

Well, just to re-enact what happened years back.

-History's important to you, isn't it?

-It is. All kinds of history.

When St Patrick was on his way from Dundalk,

he called here and he says,

"On this rock, I'll say mass for the pagans of Ireland."

At that time St Patrick didn't believe in curers or any other

pagan healers, but the local people held on to them, anyhow.

The clergy of all denominations condemned curers.

They said they were the possession of the devil.

But strangely enough, some Christian priests found that they were

faith healers themselves.

And now there's a Father Conlan,

from County Monaghan, that can cure nearly anything.

MUSIC: "Backwoods Preacher Man" by Tony Joe White

# Way down in the country

# Back in the Arkansas

# There's a man that were working for Jesus

# Trying to do some good

# He don't have no fancy building

# Just a big old raggedy tent

# And the people who come to see him

# Believe he was heaven sent

# Backwoods preacher man

# Doing the best he can

# Backwoods preacher man

# Trying to give the Lord a hand... #

Father Conlan travels up and down the border

healing people with prayers,

and people believe that he can save them from the clutches of the devil.

The devil gets in everywhere cos people...

Once you've no sense of God and no prayer in your life,

you've no chance.

Evil just takes you over. I think. There's no hope, is there?

You seem to be able to give people that.

The thing that they're missing.

They come looking for hope.

PHONE RINGS

DOG HOWLS

I have you down for one o'clock, yeah. OK.

People will ring up and I take £2 just for the...

Got 38 people in.

You kill me.

38. They're coming more, Daniel, cos we have a lot of gypsies tomorrow.

-Oh.

-Yeah. It's a group of six, but there could be ten of them.

Rose, put a sign out - "gone fishing".

He just sees people individually, blesses them with the holy oils

and that, but you have to have an appointment to see him.

Oh, fair enough, fair enough.

They tell me whatever ailment they have and I'll pray over them

for five to ten minutes.

Sometimes I've prayed with people and the heat was that enormous,

it was like a furnace, it was that warm.

and people have felt it, I've felt it,

and there's other times I've prayed where people have felt it cold.

Everybody's different.

My brother came cos he had sore feet.

My niece came because she had psoriasis,

my friend came cos he had psoriasis.

So I have a pain in my back, and I said, "Oh, I must come,"

and my other niece had psoriasis, but she wasn't available,

so I said I'd bring Mum, cos I did think she was going downhill.

And maybe it's cos she didn't have enough variety in her life

or whatever, but I just thought she'd get a boost.

And Father Conlan anointed her and they say when you're anointed,

it does give you a boost.

But certainly did with mummy,

I couldn't believe her on Monday and Tuesday.

People like Father Conlan are gifted

and I do believe they can perform miracles, actually.

If you haven't faith, you have nothing.

There. If you don't believe...

No, I do, I have a very strange faith.

I have an a la carte kind of thing.

I pick the bits I like, and I leave the bits I don't like.

But your faith hasn't waivered, Mum, you've still very strong faith.

That's the way I was brought up.

-You don't question it.

-Not really.

I might question it in me own mind, you know?

My mum was trying everything, cos she's in such pain,

we said we'd just try everything.

So, we said we're going to Father Conlan cos I have great faith in him.

There was one day there was about 30 people waiting outside the door.

It was just crazy.

A friend of mine said, "this will be like a monster," he said,

"it'll get bigger and bigger and bigger."

And I sort of laughed it off. I thought in a few months,

people wouldn't be coming, but I never had a minute's peace since.

PHONE RINGS

Hello, Father Conlan's.

Well, now, you're not going to get him today, OK?

OK, thank you. Bye-bye.

If I let people know he was up there today, they'd just go up.

-Would they?

-Without an appointment and they'd expect him to see them,

you know what I mean?

Which isn't fair for the person that I've told to come at two o'clock,

you know what I mean?

I can't close the door on people.

If they come to me, I'll have to pray with them.

It's faith, that's what it is.

And I know a lot of people who have been to him with cancer,

-and they've survived for a long time.

-Have they?

-Yeah.

-Against the odds.

-Yeah.

-So...that's...that's why you come.

You're kind of...desperate!

In a nice sort of way.

Shauna actually was a normal child up to about 15 to 18 months.

But then she started this, as you can see, hand-wringing.

And then we got worried about why she wasn't developing.

She was sitting, and the doctor told us it was just slow development, a lazy child.

So, after a while, we realised, when she stopped talking,

there was a problem. So then we brought her to...

We got tests and all done to her and we sent them to the UK.

Then eventually got the diagnosis on April 2008,

that Shauna was diagnosed with Rett syndrome.

Which basically means that Shauna, she loses all her mobility.

Basically, they can't walk, they can't talk.

And then, thank God she's not doing it now, but she could cry for hours.

Big sobs for hours.

There'd be a lot of dark nights, you know. There'd be very little light at the end of the tunnel.

But who do you turn to?

You have to have some hope. I know hope is dangerous, but you have to have hope.

Because the diagnosis we were given with Shauna, there was no hope, basically.

God's going to call you at any time or any day.

And he's the boss. And you'll not say, "Hold on, I can't go."

You'll just have to go when he says.

Whenever he wants you, he'll take you, and you have to be ready.

That right, Shauna? You have to be ready for him.

-Yeah!

-Yes.

Some situations are so sad. Like, you feel so useless.

You'd wonder, why should this child suffer?

And what has the child done wrong? But we'll never get those answers.

You know, we have to look beyond meaning sometimes, to get meaning.

And, eh, it's...

It's a hard question. But nobody really knows what's going on.

Suffering with sickness and injury is nothing new here.

# Oh, Lord, I'm in your care

# Oh, Lord, I'm in your care

# Your loving arms around me

# Evil cannot harm me

# Lord, I'm in your care. #

This is where the wheel was, to drive the mill.

It was dangerous work.

There was one day a young fella got his hand caught in the mill.

And he died the next day.

It took part of the body.

# ..All day long I'm in your care

# All day long I'm in your care

# Your loving arms around me

# Evil cannot harm me

# Lord, I'm in your care. #

Little Bridget Flynn was about ten years old,

and she was burned to death in the parochial house in Dungooley.

And her sister got her face burned, but lived to be an old woman.

# ..When I was sick I was in your care

# When I was sick I was in your care

# Your loving arms around me

# Evil cannot harm me

# Lord, I'm in your care. #

There were two young men going to a dance in Mullaghbane on Easter Sunday night.

And as they were coming round this corner here,

the car tumbled upside down and went on fire.

There was nothing left, only a few bones.

# ..My room was dark I was in your care

# My room was dark I was in your care

# Your loving arms around me

# Evil cannot harm me

# Lord, I'm in your care. #

With so much suffering in this land, people are always looking for cures.

And the most popular healing priest around here is Padre Pio, the man from Italy.

Thousands of people flock to pray at his shrines.

Padre Pio suffered a lot himself.

He had nail holes in his hands and in his feet, and a cut on his side,

the same as what Jesus had.

And he used to have to wear gloves to stop the bleeding.

And people come from all over to kiss this glove.

And an awful lot of them gets healed.

Now, when he's dead, he's regarded as a saint.

And while he is dead, he can still cure people of all these illnesses.

There's never a guarantee that you can get a miracle.

But you have to put your mind and heart all into it.

When my father was dying way back years ago,

we went and got that glove. And my father died.

And we do not pray to him.

There's only one heals, is Jesus, God.

I mean, if you look around the house, you'll see no mumbo jumbo stuff around this house.

You know what I mean? Before, it used to be packed with stuff.

You know, lumps of concrete and plastic and different things around the house.

-What, like idols?

-Yeah, idols, in other words, what the Bible calls them. Idols.

There's one idol to me now, is Jesus, God.

That's my idol, he's my idol. Cos I cannot live without him.

John Purcell, a character from the Newry area,

was a Catholic at one time.

He believes that relics and cures are the work of the devil.

John became an evangelist preacher with an awful lot of people following him.

We're all sinners. When God created Adam and Eve, he said,

"You see the tree in the middle of the garden?

"The tree of good and evil, the tree of life and death?

"Do not touch it, cos if you do, you will die."

And she reached out and took the fruit.

And her and Adam ate the fruit.

And then God got them, and put them out, and go out and multiply.

And of course, from the sin in the Garden of Eden,

at the very beginning, moves out and then God can look on it,

the Holy Spirit can even live in our bodies now!

God cannot use a dirty vessel.

We need to live and breathe the word of God,

cos there's people out there hurting. They don't know who to run to,

they don't know where to go. And there's people doing a lot of damage to their own selves

cos they've no future ahead of them. And we only have Jesus.

Jesus is our future! In other words, there is a miracle underneath

that doubt that you put there! Take it away!

There's a miracle coming this day!

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light.

They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death,

upon them hath the light.

Also, I heard the voice of the Lord say, "Whom shall I send?"

"Then," said I, "Here am I. Send me."

HE SPEAKS IN TONGUES

Thank the Lord.

When you get filled with the Holy Spirit, then the Holy Spirit gives you the gift of tongues.

God wants you to pray directly to him. You know what I mean?

Where nobody else can understand it. Only him can understand that.

I can't even understand it meself sometimes.

Different times, different languages comes out. And you don't know. You know what I mean?

They just come. But you know it's from him, it's directly from God.

You know, when I'm up here then, I know with all of my heart,

I can talk to God. You know what I mean?

Cos I know he's there, everywhere.

The Lord God commanded the man, saying,

"Of every tree of the garden, thou may'st freely eat.

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

"thou shall not eat of it.

"For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die."

I learned the scriptures through audio tapes, cos I can't read and write.

So I've to memorise word after word, meaning after meaning.

Cos when you're standing behind a pulpit,

you're in control of their mind, in other words.

And so many people take on things that you say.

We have to go strictly by the word of God. Nothing added or taken from it.

Cos people's lives is involved here.

Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden

to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man.

And he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubims,

and a flaming sword which turned every way

to keep the way of the tree of life.

There's not many people afraid of God these days.

They stopped going to church

and they spend a lot of their time watching television instead.

But around here and other parts of the country,

there's a big problem with that.

Sometimes the signal won't be working

and there's no television to be seen.

We have no signal here know since 24th October.

And a BBC man come out to check on the television.

He walked up and down the road and could get no signal.

So he said he'd come back on 6th December

and have a satellite dish with him.

And that we should be fit to get nearly all the stations then, and HD.

Aye, in these days there's an awful lot of modern things

and they're breaking down pretty often.

It's a lot of old nonsense.

We've a few interesting videos till we get the television working.

I'll show you the sort of ones we were looking at now.

This one's Sheepdog. "There's no good flock without a good shepherd,

"and no good shepherd without a good dog.

"For the first time, this unique video tells the story

"of the world's wisest dog, the Border collie.

"There's a sheepdog trial at a local agricultural show.

"The blacksmith, butter-making,

"spinning" - that's on a spinning wheel, like -

"and the cobbler, the thatcher,

"making pancakes and making griddled scones."

Everything had to be done the hard way.

The Ulster Farming Year.

"This video is probably different from any other farming video

"that you have previously purchased or viewed."

'Robert Bradley lays it on thick on his land...'

# Over the moor land

# And over the lea

# Across the Atlantic Oh, what do I see?

# The high hills of Antrim

# The coastline of Clare

# The green fields of Ireland will welcome me there

# We are an island way out on the sea... #

It's almost impossible to make a living from farming these days.

There's a lot of young people leaving the country now because there's no work

and they get a better life when they're away somewhere else.

# Her lofty scene, her valleys green

# Her mountains rude and wild

# They say she is a lovely land

# Wherein a prince might dwell

# Oh, why did you abandon it?

# The reason do me tell. #

I worked on this farm from I was 14 years of age.

It's not fitting right.

This was an old stable for horses. There was horses here before I come.

And then there was cattle and pigs and sheep.

But I sold them all there a couple of years ago.

You see, everything's too dear now.

You put more into cattle than what you'd get out of them.

Only for the subsidies, there'd be nothing at all.

There's a few farmers hanging onto the land.

One of them is Patsy Mell in Ballygawley.

He still counts on the old cures to protect his cattle.

He seems to think that hanging Hurley branches in the cattle shed

stops sickness getting to the herd.

It's a good idea to believe in the cures and everything like that,

because the old ways was always the cheapest way.

It can be the last hope in some cases.

Once you'd lost your job, you know the way you'd feel.

A man like me would manage, living on my own.

But what about a man that is rearing a family or something like that?

At the present time now, at my age, you'd be afraid to give it up,

because you're attached to the cows.

Every morning you get up, the first thing you do,

you get your cup of tea and you go to them cows.

That's your livelihood. And you know nothing else.

If you give that up, you'd be sort of lost.

I would say it was the worst year nearly in living memory.

# Oh, Lord, help me to walk another mile, just one more mile

# I'm tired of walking all alone

# And Lord, help me to smile another smile, just one more smile

# Don't think I can do things on my own

# I never thought I needed help before

# Thought that I could get by by myself

# But now I know I just can't take it any more

# And with a humble heart on bended knee

# I'm begging you, please for help. #

Save them, Lord.

And turn them around, Lord, take all the hurt away from them

and help them and bless them, oh God.

In Jesus' name, I ask you to grant those prayers. Amen. Thank God.

There's a lot of people hurting out there.

There's people hurting in pain and sickness in some of them houses.

Maybe people lying in beds, can't get out of bed, even.

Know what I mean? And that's right through the whole country here.

Right through the whole world. You know what I mean?

If humans could help humans, know what I mean?

And there's people out there can do it, but they won't do it.

And there's people out there have billions. They think they want more.

And yet, when we're taken from this Earth,

we can't bring nothing with us.

Know what I mean?

We can pray for them. But we need bucketfuls of prayer.

Prayer is a mighty weapon against the devil.

A woman asked me one day,

"John, how much do I owe you for praying for me?" I said, "Excuse me,

"if I charge you for praying for you, I'd be working for me.

"I'm not working for me. I'm working for Jesus." I'm in God's army.

God has chosen me to be a warrior, a soldier, a vessel.

So I'm out in the fields there, and I'm winning souls for Christ.

I'm showing God's love and the devil do not like it.

There's not a day goes by that the devil's out after me

and my wife and my children, trying to trip us up in some way.

A lot of poor people are led astray, led to the wrong god.

The Tom, Dick and Harry type of thing.

There's only one god, though, God Almighty.

'Be strong. Fear not.

'Behold, your God will come with vengeance,

'even God with a recompense. He will come and save you.

'Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened.

'And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

'Then shall the lame man leap as unharmed

'and the tongue of the dumb sing.

'And the ransomed of the Lord shall return

'and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.

'They shall obtain joy and gladness.

'And sorrow and sighing shall flee away.'

Dear Lord God, Almighty Father, I thank you

from the depths of my heart for your presence here, Lord.

And Lord, you know everyone that came through the door tonight,

Lord, Heavenly Father.

I'm asking you from the depths of my heart for you to intervene,

Lord, and take complete control.

I do ask you for souls to be saved in this meeting tonight.

I do ask you for healing and miracles to be done here this night, Lord.

Praise the Lord!

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I ask you to

grant this prayer. A shield of protection for them.

And Lord, bless them, bless them, bless them.

In Jesus' name in health and strength and well, and peace in home, Lord.

And family, Lord, and finance, Lord. In Jesus' name.

A shield of protection for the business.

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,

I ask you to grant this prayer. Amen.

You're a young man, your whole life is ahead of you.

And you have to get on with your life.

And your mother and your sister do not want you hurting.

You know what I mean? Cos they have no hurt now where they are.

So you need to get on with your life. Did you get saved tonight, there?

-Did you put your hand up?

-No.

Would you not like to give your heart to the Lord?

-And you said a little prayer with me?

-I said a prayer, aye.

-To Jesus.

Yeah.

In Jesus' name, Holy Spirit, I ask you God, Almighty Father,

to bless him and bless him and bless him.

And take all fear and doubt away from him, Lord,

and give him peace about his situation, Lord.

Lord, give him peace and let him know, Lord, Heavenly Father,

that his name is written in the Lamb's book of life in heaven. Amen.

-Thank you.

-God bless you.

HE SPEAKS IN TONGUES

DOGS HOWL

God chose me, I didn't choose God.

See, I had no intention whatsoever to bring the word of God into this home.

You know, I remember years ago, I was just walking through the door

and my daughter, Eileen, called me.

She said, "Daddy, your brother Hugh is on the phone." And the first

thing he said to me, "I'm a born-again Christian," he said.

Says I, "What?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

I said, "Are you all right?" And then I realised he was gone mad.

He kept telling me to get a Bible and I thought, "A Bible?"

And then he said, "I'm telling you, get a Bible.

"Your soul is in danger of going to hell."

And my telephone began to look like a Rottweiler to me.

The very minute the phone used to ring,

I used to tremble and jump because I knew it was going to be him.

He'd be hours on the phone, telling me about Jesus. And get a Bible.

And then I started thinking about a hospital that I know of, that you can

put jump leads in your brains and, you know, bring you back to your senses.

So I thought we were going to have to get a lend of a straitjacket

off of them and take it over to England and take my brother back.

I was convinced he had blown a fuse.

But anyway, we love our family, a very close-knit family.

There was 18 children, 13 boys and five girls.

But I had a young brother killed, away back in the '70s.

He was murdered in Belfast during the Troubles.

You know... I'm sorry.

I used to look after him and mind him, you know, as a child.

And then, you know, all my life, you know,

I looked after one of my brothers. Excuse me for what I'm doing here.

And then, when he got killed, then the hurt, you know,

it entered into me. For the first time in my life,

I realised that it can happen to anybody.

And then...

Then my father took ill. He took cancer.

Then he died with cancer.

I couldn't help him, I didn't know what to do. Cos I wasn't saved.

I didn't know nothing about Jesus.

I started drinking more heavier then. To try and kill this pain.

When it come dark at night, then, when you're alone, it was all hurt.

My mother used to say to me, "That demon drink, son, is going

"to kill you." And I didn't know how to get off it.

My brother rung me from England, after months went by.

My brother rung me and said, "We're coming back to Ireland to preach."

And then I went over there the next night and I went in.

I wanted to find a loophole. Where's the money? There's got to be money.

Cos money was my god.

# Your faith was strong but you needed proof

# You saw her bathing on the roof

# Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you... #

I listened to the word that the pastor was preaching

and he said to me, "God sent his one and only begotten son down

"to this Earth to die for you." And I thought he was giving cheek.

I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "If you were the only man on this Earth,

"God would have still sent his son down to die for you.

"And you know," he said, "when you die and your soul goes to God to be

"judged, God is going to say to you, 'What did you do for my son, Jesus?'

"And what are you going to say? What did you do for my son, Jesus?"

And I started crying like a child, sobbing.

And all I could do is put a big X on the page, the last page.

What did I do for him? I did nothing for him.

And the tears started coming down on my face.

And my eyes were getting that much full with tears.

And then I realised I didn't want to go to hell.

I surrendered my whole life over to God with both hands,

and from that day forward, my life changed.

I mean that with all my heart. It's absolutely beautiful to be saved.

# Hallelujah

# Hallelujah

# Hallelujah

# Hallelujah

# Hallelujah

# Hallelujah

# Hallelujah

# Hallelujah

CAR HORN BEEPS

-Pete, the television man's here.

-Oh. He'll be in in a minute or two.

HAMMERING

-It's going to break.

-What is?

-The window, because it's open.

Oh, I didn't know.

No, leave it. You'll have to go out and push it.

And watch the way you push it, or you'll break it.

The old windows are rotten.

DRILLING

Drills and everything.

-Will he take a cup of tea?

-He will. But he wants to finish what he's at.

-Eh?

-He wants to finish what he's doing.

-181 new channels.

Is that enough for you?!

If that doesn't keep you going, I don't know what will!

-What station is that?

-That's BBC One.

-That's a good picture there.

-Perfect.

-See, look, channel list. That'll bring up the channels.

-See all the channels?

-Aye.

-And see the arrows here?

That'll go up and down there and you go up and down.

Say you want UTV, and just press OK.

-And UTV'll come up.

-Aye.

-See that? That's the channel list there.

-Or you can use up and down, like that.

-Aye.

-Have a wee go. All right?

-Aye.

-All right, Peter.

-Are you away?

Here, do you want a drop of tea before you go?

Ah, no, I have to keep going. I've a load more to do yet.

-I'd be drinking tea all day! Good luck.

-Right. Good luck.

Preview. What is that?

Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, "Get thee out of their country

"and from their kindred and from their father's house,

"unto a land that I will show thee.

"And I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless thee

"and make thy name great. And thou shalt be a blessing.

"And I will bless them that bless thee,

"and curse him that curseth thee.

"And in thee shall all families of the Earth be blessed."

John's coming down the mountain here to talk to God quite a bit recently.

There must be something brewing that we know nothing about.

God spoke to me.

And I know with all of my heart that God has led me to go to Belfast.

And I want God to be seen in every part of it.

I want him to be glorified

and lifted on high through every part of this mission.

I do not want to be seen in it, I want God to be seen in it.

I want God to be seen in me, that the Holy Spirit can be seen through me.

The Lord led in my heart to go and help Belfast by giving the truth.

By preaching the truth from God's word.

And I know for a fact a lot of people's going to be healed

and touched.

When I heard about John Purcell first of all, I thought to myself,

"He's an ex-tinker." You know, a gypsy.

But he'd had this God experience.

And he brings this message of hope.

Whatever people think of religion, you know,

I feel that Belfast needs some kind of miracle ministry,

where there's a real work of God in healing.

Remember, we came out of 35 years of civil war. And it does affect you.

I do not want to go back to the type of man I was.

That man is frightening.

I was under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

You know, I kept hitting new lows.

The bottom kept dropping out of the bottom.

I knew that sooner or later, I was going to do serious damage.

I was going to kill somebody. I was out of control.

So I went to church to stop falling over the edge,

although I still lived with these demons.

I know you led me to come here, Lord.

Lord, in Jesus' name, Holy Spirit, I ask you, God, Almighty Father,

to grant these prayers.

HE SPEAKS IN TONGUES

'Vanity of vanities, said the preacher. All is vanity.

'And moreover, because the preacher was wise,

'he still taught the people knowledge.

'Yea, he gave good heed and sought out and set in order many proverbs.

'The preacher sought to find out acceptable words.

'And that which was written was upright. Even words of truth.'

For he that believes in me, as the Scripture has said,

out of his belly, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.

If anybody thirsts, let him come to me and I will set you free!

Maybe you think you're no good, you're worthless, nobody loves you.

You just tried it and tried it and you can't get over it.

It's like a big brick wall in front of you.

But I know with all of my heart, if you surrender your whole life

to Christ this night, that he can set you free!

He can wash and cleanse your filter. He can make it whiter than snow.

He can set you free. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord.

Isn't it beautiful to know him?

One prayer away, that's how far you are from Christ.

Isn't that beautiful to know that?

You know, there's a lot of people talking it,

but they're not walking it.

# You can run on for a long time

# Run on for a long time

# Run on for a long time

# Sooner or later, gotta put you down

# Sooner or later, gotta cut you down

# Go tell that long-tongued liar

# Go and tell that midnight rider

# Tell the rambler The gambler, the back-biter

# Tell them that God's gonna cut 'em down

# Tell them that God's gonna cut 'em down!

# Well, my goodness gracious Let me tell you the news

# My head's been wet with the midnight dew

# I've been down on bended knee

# Talking to the man from Galilee

# He spoke to me in a voice so sweet

# I thought I heard the shuffle of angels' feet

# He called my name and my heart stood still

# When he said John, go do my will!

# Go tell that long-tongued liar

# Go and tell that midnight rider

# Tell the rambler The gambler, the back-biter

# Tell that that God's gonna cut 'em down

# Tell that that God's gonna cut 'em down! #

Isn't it beautiful to be shook up with the presence of the Holy Spirit?

It's like electric going through you. It's absolutely beautiful.

To know him, that he's living in my heart. The Holy Spirit is here.

And living in your heart, those of us that's saved.

And I thank God that I know the real smile. Mwah!

Me father's gone before me and I would love if he only could see me.

Now. Or me mother. Cos the way my life changed, completely.

There's only God done it.

Thank God that I got saved.

And I know with all of my heart that God is alive.

And I know with all of my heart, only for him, I wouldn't be alive today.

I mean that, I wouldn't be here today. I know for a fact I wouldn't.

I'd be burning in hell right now.

In Jesus' name be healed. Amen.

And I'm not going to be a greedy Christian.

I want to give every person on this Earth the word of God.

I want to be like a little child with an ice cream

and the other children have no ice cream, they want a lick.

That's what I want to be. You see an ice cream, I want a lick of it.

And I'm not perfect. But I want to be perfect. And some day I will, when...

I'll never be perfect until I go through the gates of heaven.

I can picture God reaching out with a hammer and chisel

and take another rough edge off me before I go through them gates.

And the man that thinks he's perfect, he needs to get on his knees

and ask God to forgive him.

Religion is dead, but Jesus is alive!

He's the same yesterday, today, and for ever! He never changes!

And he's everywhere. Everywhere.

There's a lot of things that people can believe in.

Just believe in what you think is right.

Well, lots of people believes that there's a heaven and hell

and other people says there's neither.

But there's no-one knows till the last day. And then what can you do?

If you meet someone at the Golden Gates

and they tell you you'll have to go down below, you wouldn't like that.

And then if you were asked to go up above, it'd be great.

But if you meet nothing, there's no harm done. You'll go neither place.

In the depths of your hopes

and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond.

And like seeds streaming beneath the snow, your heart dreams of spring.

Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Only when you drink from the river of silence, shall you indeed sing.

And when you have reached the mountain top,

then you shall begin to climb.

And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

MUSIC PLAYS

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd.