The Hail Mary has been voted Ireland's favourite prayer.
Following a vote, which took place during the three-day National Ploughing Championship in Co Carlow, the prayer in honour of Our Lady came out on top.
It won 61 per cent of the vote at the competition while the Prayer to the Guardian Angel came in second, with 39 per cent of the vote.
Bishop Denis Nulty, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, said there was "great excitement surrounding the search for Ireland’s favourite prayer and visitors to the stand voted in their droves to finally award the title to the Hail Mary".
"The fact that both of the final prayers are so familiar and are ones that were learnt by all of us as children is interesting and points to the importance of the traditional prayers as a source of comfort and a place to which we turn when only a prayer will do," he said.
Bishop McNulty added: "Over the three days 3,000 bags of blessed salt, 4,000 wrist bands, hundreds of Saint Brigid’s Crosses, thousands of prayer cards and magnets were taken away by visitors who were delighted to find this oasis in the midst of the busyness of the Ploughing".
