Not all find what they come to see. Sometimes, the crowds prove too great to get a good look. Others wonder if the lighting has to be just right, or the wood dry and not damp.

Irish Catholics saw images of the Virgin Mary during Ireland's last recession in the mid-1980s, when thousands prayed at village statues believed to gesture, nod or even hover.

The stump has proven a boon for the local economy, with the curious traveling from neighboring counties to light votive candles and say rosaries — and sample the local pubs and shops.

Rathkeale shopkeeper Seamus Hogan is leading a petition drive to deter village authorities from uprooting and removing the stump, as they originally planned to do Wednesday. The petition has more than 2,000 signatures — and White's tree-cutters have gotten the message.

"We won't be removing the stump. We'd remove it at our peril," White said.

A woman places an item on a tree stump Thursday in the churchyard at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in County Limerick, Ireland. Thousands of Irish Catholics are flocking to the church to pray at the stump — a recently cut-down willow that many say bears the shape of the Virgin Mary. The phenomenon in the village of Rathkeale harks back to decades past, when pilgrimages were common. The workman who made the cut said he doesn't see the Virgin Mary. "I see it as the grain of a tree myself." he said.