MATA AMRITNANDAMAYI, KNOWN to her followers as Amma, has hugged around 30 million people during her annual tours around the world.

She is in Dublin today and tomorrow to embrace people at a free event taking place at the National Show Centre, Cloghran, near Dublin Airport.

The programme started today at 10 am and will run until late afternoon, before running again from 7pm until late. Tomorrow,  Sunday 18 November, it will run for the same times. Amma will host a series of special programs at the Dublin venue, which will include talks, music, dancing, and meditation.

Twitter user Nick McGivney tweeted a photo of the centre earlier today, showing people waiting for events to begin.

Amma has won of international honors for her humanitarian work, such as the Gandhi-King Award for Non Violence in 2002, previously won by Kofi Annan and Nelson Mandela; and in 2006 she was presented with the Interfaith Centre of New York’s James Parks Morton Interfaith award, previously presented to the Dalai Lama.

Her visit to Dublin is open to everyone and admission is free. It is part of the 59-year-old’s European tour through 11 cities where she is expected to embrace at least 160,000 Europeans.  The event was organised by a couple of hundred dedicated Irish volunteers.