1981 Royal Wedding

The 1981 Royal Wedding appears as a point of comparison rather than as a depicted scene: Gerry Fenn recalls the atmosphere in London on the wedding day while walking toward the gathering at Banfield. The allusion gives him a familiar measure for the force of a crowd assembled around a public occasion, while the novel marks the energy at the shrine as something more concentrated and unsettling.

The Reference in Fenn’s Journey

As traffic thickens on the road to Banfield, Fenn leaves his car and continues on foot, expecting the route to St. Joseph’s Church to become impassable. He passes pilgrims travelling by coach, minibus, car, motorcycle, and bicycle. Their shared journey includes hymns and prayers, but also curiosity and the desire for novelty. Near the shrine, he senses a collective atmosphere and reaches for an earlier precedent: London in the summer of 1981, on the day of the Royal Wedding. He also recalls the public gathering for Pope John Paul II’s 1982 visit to Britain, placing both occasions within his memory of large-scale assemblies.

A Familiar Crowd, a Different Force

The comparison establishes a likeness in atmosphere, not an equivalence between the occasions. Fenn recognizes the Banfield gathering as a convergence of public feeling, but judges its energy to have a distinct potency, intensifying toward the shrine. The Royal Wedding provides a secular reference point through which he can register the crowd’s scale and shared excitement; what distinguishes Banfield is the force he believes is accumulating around Alice Pagett.

Significance to Fenn’s Interpretation

The allusion comes as Fenn connects the crowd’s energy to Alice’s apparent power and to the earlier power of Einor. He understands the gathering as a source of psychic energy, made effective through the belief of those who come seeking healing. In that interpretation, the Royal Wedding remains a comparison in his recollection, while Banfield’s crowd becomes part of his explanation for how faith and collective attention might produce extraordinary effects. The reference therefore marks a shift from observing a large pilgrimage to reading it as an active force in the events around the shrine.