International Journal of Religious Tourism and International Journal of Religious Tourism and

Pilgrimage Pilgrimage

Volume 8 Issue 4 Article 2

2020

(Re)Inscribing Meaning: Embodied Religious-spiritual Practices at (Re)Inscribing Meaning: Embodied Religious-spiritual Practices at

Croagh Patrick and Our Lady’s Island, Ireland Croagh Patrick and Our Lady’s Island, Ireland

Richard Scriven University College Cork, r.scriven@umail.ucc.ie

Eoin O'Mahony University College Dublin, eoin.omahony@ucd.ie

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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Scriven, Richard and O'Mahony, Eoin (2020) "(Re)Inscribing Meaning: Embodied Religious-spiritual Practices at Croagh Patrick and Our Lady’s Island, Ireland," International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage: Vol. 8: Iss. 4, Article 2. doi:https://doi.org/10.21427/fwx6-ps31 Available at: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ijrtp/vol8/iss4/2

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Cover Page Footnote Cover Page Footnote We are grateful to the research participant and pilgrimage authorities for facilitating our research, and to the journal editors and reviewers for helping improve the article.

This academic paper is available in International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ijrtp/vol8/iss4/2

(Re)Inscribing Meaning: Embodied Religious-spiritual Practices

at Croagh Patrick and Our Lady’s Island, Ireland

Volume 8(iv) 2020

Introduction

Pilgrimages are not just religious / spiritual activities,

but are also economic, political, and social processes

that create destinations and routes enabling the

circulation of people, goods, and ideas. This

multifaceted nature is taking on a new significance in

post-secular contexts as different priorities shape the

motivations of pilgrims and understandings of these

spaces (Blom, et al., 2016). Sanctity and secularity are

interacting in new ways through pilgrimages,

especially in the western world. Responding to this

shifting landscape, we examine how annual

pilgrimages are central to asserting the sacred character

of two sites in Ireland. The paper considers the holy

place-making capacities of embodied practices at

Croagh Patrick County Mayo and Our Lady’s Island

County Wexford (See Figure 1). These traditionally

Roman Catholic pilgrimage centres are now framed by

intersecting / overlapping religious, recreational,

tourist, and heritage perspectives as a result of which

the large-scale pilgrimages take on an additional

significance to (re)inscribe religious meaning in these

landscapes. The sites emerge and re-emerge in ongoing

located processes of performance, history, vernacular

religion, and contemporary social and political themes.

The inter-disciplinary focus on pilgrimage in recent

years has broadened our understanding by illustrating

the range of scales and forms involved. A dominant

strand of research has established the wide appeal of

pilgrimage and diversity of participants and

motivations, including secularly motivated pilgrimages

to cultural sites, war graves, and memorials (Badone,

2014; Lopez, Lois González & Fernández, 2017; Silva

et al., 2019). Similarly, the crossover between tourism

and pilgrimages has been extensively discussed,

drawing out the nuances and sentiments of how

modern pilgrimage is performed and perceived (Della

Dora, 2012; Lois González, 2013). Pilgrimage retains

much of its traditional role, with millions of religious

devotees performing their faith annually and it serving

as a source of consolation for those enduring illness,

misfortune, and the loss of loved ones (Coleman &

Eade, 2012; Maddrell, Terry & Gale, 2015). This paper

is positioned at the intersection of these larger research

agendas as it engages with how two pilgrimage

locations are defined as religious spaces.

Our approach intentionally builds on geographical

engagements which have problematised simplified and

clear-cut categorisations of religious and spiritual

matters as discrete entities; instead the pilgrimage

© International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage ISSN : 2009-7379 Available at: http://arrow.tudublin.ie/ijrtp/

Richard Scriven University College Cork, Ireland r.scriven@umail.ucc.ie

Eoin O'Mahony University College Dublin, Ireland eoin.omahony@ucd.ie

Responding to calls for critical interrogations of pilgrimages, our paper examines how different religious meanings are (re)inscribed in spaces through the performance of annual events in a post-secular context. This focus reveals how pilgrims’ embodied practices are fundamental to continuing definitions of these locations as sacred places. Using accounts of the Croagh Patrick and Our Lady’s Island pilgrimages in Ireland, we trace the movement of people in these spaces focusing on how meanings are forged, refracted, and challenged through the performances. These mass embodiments assert traditional understandings of Christian worship and looser spiritual interpretations, while simultaneously involving secular concerns. The paper advances discussions of pilgrimages through an examination of the processes of embodied place­-making found at two Irish pilgrimage sites informed by considerations of the increasingly complex religious-spiritual spatialities. We contend that the processes of inscription centre on the corporeal spatial practices which sustain, enhance, and unsettle the (re)creation of these places as sacred.

Key Words: pilgrimage, sacred space, embodied practices, Ireland

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place secularity as an aggressor towards all religiosity

and spirituality (Bartolini, Chris, MacKian & Pile,

2017; Brace, Bailey & Harvey, 2006; Chen, 2017).

Broader appreciations of sacred space illustrate how it

can be made through cultural and political forces as

well as in spiritual meanings (Kong, 2001). This is

furthered by post-secular geographies that appreciate

how space is shaped by the

dynamics of secularization and secularism (as political and cultural ideology) but which also has to negotiate and make space for the re-emergence of public expressions of religion and spirituality (Beaumont and Baker, 2011:3).

In this environment, the sacred and profane have

become even more intermeshed, ‘increasing visibility

of religion in public space and a growing plurality of

religious communities’ (Havlíček & Klingorová,

2018:792).

Two recent frameworks shape our examination of

these spatial intersections. Firstly, della Dora’s

(2016:45) ‘infrasecular geographies’ articulates the

complex overlapping layers and material

manifestations of coexistences in these realms, by

focusing on:

contemporaneous cohabitation and competition between multiple forms of belief and non-belief, as well as by the hidden layers of a collective ‘religious subconscious’ which underpins contemporary Western European societies, no matter how secularized.

Through examinations of the re-purposing or

transforming of sites of worship, she demonstrates how

models of desacralisation and resacralisation are

tangible expressions of continually present and shifting

sacred landscapes. Foundational to this paradigm is the

importance of ‘material specificities, performative

encounters, affects, numinous and emotional

geographies’ of these sites (della Dora, 2016:65).

Secondly, Tse’s (2014:202) model outlines

contemporary geographies of religion in a (post)secular

age:

the task of geographers who deal with religion is to reveal spaces, places, and networks as constituted by grounded theologies, performative practices of place-making informed by understandings of the transcendent [original emphasis].

This emphasis balances considerations of the

transcendent and immaterial, alongside more immanent

social, cultural, political, and secular processes.

Scriven & O’Mahony (Re)Inscribing Meaning: Embodied Religious-spiritual Practices, Ireland

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religious-spiritual realm is approached as a thoroughly

grounded arena which is mobilised through

contemporary embodied practices, socio-political

concerns, and material and located features (Tse,

2014). Foregrounding the embodied practices at Our

Lady’s Island and Croagh Patrick enables the

investigation of how sanctity is performed and

emplaced in post-secularity. It illustrates the

importance of theorising and negotiating what is meant

by the sacred and its spatial presences (Blain & Wallis,

2004), as well as mapping different forms of religious-

spiritual practice and beliefs in place (Brace et al.,

2011).

Our discussion progresses by outlining the processual

understandings of sacred space and the centrality of

embodied performances in place-making, which are

framed through Veronica della Dora’s (2016)

‘infrasecular geographies’ and Justin Tse’s (2014)

‘grounded theologies’. Next, an overview of

contemporary pilgrimage in Ireland and the post-

secular milieu is provide, alongside an outline of the

field methods deployed in the research. Two case

studies focus on the performances, events, and

discourses surrounding the annual pilgrimages at

Croagh Patrick and Our Lady’s Island in Ireland. These

are followed by a discussion section highlighting the

role of embodied practices in the (re)creation of both

landscapes as sacred places including the layers,

animations, and tensions involved. The conclusion

reflects on the key points and suggests a direction for

future study in this complex and evolving area of

research.

Inscribing sacred meanings in pilgrimage spaces

Increasing interest in sacred space since the 1990s has

moved from static and bounded conceptions to

processual ontologies centring on performances,

embodiments, and relationalities (Finlayson, 2017;

Kong, 2010). Previously, a social construction lens

highlighted ‘different (and often conflicting) narratives,

meanings and social practices’, while more recently,

everyday, experiential, and ethereal encounters are

foreground in the ‘more-than-representational’

approaches (della Dora, 2011:167). Informed by these

understandings, we interrogate the creation of

pilgrimage landscapes as religious-spiritual spaces

constituted through embodied performances.

Critical interventions in conceptions of sacred place

have primarily sought to move beyond the resilient

dichotomy of sacred versus profane, and accounts that

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Volume 8(iv) 2020

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research that has highlighted how embodied spatial

practices are central to creation of sacred spaces

(Bremer, 2006; Holloway & Vallins, 2002), and to

development of the more-than representational

approaches in human geography which prioritise

experiential understandings of the place (Anderson &

Harrison, 2011; Macpherson, 2010). Pilgrims have

agency in the conduct of their pilgrimage and through

the examples provided here, we show how spiritual

and religious meanings are inscribed in these sites.

This paper’s focus on the inscription of sacredness into

the landscape foregrounds della Dora’s and Tse’s

frameworks to critically consider the role of

performance in the forging of sacred spaces within

fluid arenas of sanctity and secularity. By

understanding that the interrelationships of belief and

landscapes ‘can be intensely complex, dynamic and

unstable’ (Cooper, 1994:202), we centre our work on

embodied spatial mobilities as forms of infrasecular

geographies and grounded theologies. These unfold in

the relationality of embodied practices and different

spaces.

Contexts and Methods

Ireland has witnessed a recent revived interest in

pilgrimage which has occurred in the context of

increasing secularisation. Census data and other

sources indicate a slow decline in religious affiliation

(CSO, 2017; O’Mahony, 2011). More recently, Irish

society has begun to enter a post-secular phase

whereby formal religion still holds a significant role as

a cultural force and a provider of social services, while

other forms of spiritual identity are growing alongside

atheism and humanism (Ganiel, 2016; O’Mahony,

2019). More private and individualised beliefs are

gaining prominence drawing on ecological, ‘Celtic’,

and hybrid spiritualties (Flanagan & O’Sullivan, 2016).

Against this background, pilgrimage is a popular

activity, with at least tens of thousands partaking in

Reek Sunday at Croagh Patrick or the annual Novena

at Knock, Co. Mayo. National and local sites have

recently been developed to facilitate increased

numbers, and Roman Catholic diocese and parishes are

putting a strong emphasis on pilgrimage. Secular

bodies have also promoted pilgrimage; most

prominently, the Heritage Council supported the

development of the ‘Pilgrim Paths’ network along

medieval routes in conjunction with local

communities. Accompanying books serve to promote

the routes as spiritual, recreational, and cultural spaces

(MacDonald, 2013; O’Dwyer, 2013). These

Significantly, these approaches enable new

examinations into the practiced roles of secularisation

and sacralisation of sacred spaces (Chen, 2017). For

example, they present a means of discussing how in

Western cities former mainstream Christian churches

are becoming art galleries and restaurants, while

evangelical congregations are establishing themselves

in industrial spaces or despite the decline in religious

practice, spiritual-motivated social justice

organisations are increasingly active and new

buildings, such as airports and shopping centres, have

prayer rooms. Together della Dora and Tse prompt

new considerations for the way the religious-spiritual

and secular are interacting in relation to each other but

also in relation to themselves with a focus on how the

different features and ideologies interact in the making

of place.

Pilgrimage spaces serve as a clear example of how the

sacred and secular interlace as traditional and diverse

spiritual believers participate in routes and centres that

are supported by civil society and official bodies (Hall

et al., 2017; Kim, Kim, & King, 2016). Post-secular

influences are found in pilgrimages with participants

undertaking the practices for a variety of motivations

which are generating new forms of engagement and

patterns of movement (Maddrell, Terry & Gale, 2015).

For example, Blom, Nilsson and Santos (2016) discuss

how increased individual religiosity and negative

response to commercialised mass tourism at Santiago

de Compostela have resulted in Fisterra, 100km west

of the city, emerging as the destination for some

groups, while Øian (2019) explores forms of

contestation between different interpretations of

pilgrimage routes in Norway. While shrines and

pilgrimage destinations retain their spiritual functions,

recent appreciations discuss how different secular

forces are also present and necessary.

Within this context, the physical undertakings and

ritualised actions of participants are central to shaping

these locations as scared spaces. Pilgrimages are

understood as meaningful journeys through which

individuals and groups reach new spiritual and

emotional states (Guichard-Anguis, 2011; Scriven,

2014). Maddrell (2013) explains that the practices of

pilgrimage facilitate, but do not guarantee, meaningful

journeys. In the embodied activities between people

and places both ‘coconstitutively come into being in

this process of physical interaction’ (Maddrell & della

Dora, 2013:1115). Through these performances,

pilgrims and pilgrimage spaces emerge together

(Scriven, 2019b). In addition, this focus dovetails with

studies that appreciate the importance of located

interventions. The detailed work of Dubisch (1995) on

the pilgrimage to the Madonna of the Annunciation on

the Greek island, Tinos, and Frey’s (1998) description

of the Camino de Santiago established the insights

provided into embedded examinations of the practices,

discourses, and activities. More recently, engagements

with pilgrimage have prioritised researchers

participating in events, conducting surveys on site, and

interacting with pilgrims at these spaces and

Scriven & O’Mahony (Re)Inscribing Meaning: Embodied Religious-spiritual Practices, Ireland

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pilgrimages are both shaped by, and a manifestation of,

the increasing post-secular influences in Irish society

with both religious and profane factors supporting

them.

Our research at both Our Lady’s Island and Croagh

Patrick involved participant observation during the

main pilgrimage activities, including taking detailed

field notes and extensive photographs. This approach

was informed by methodologies from pilgrimage

Figure 1: Location of the research sites within Ireland.

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Volume 8(iv) 2020

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teeming multitudes – many of whom otherwise would never have recourse to a hillside – come in a human avalanche to search for redemption on a tough ascent to the crest of Ireland’s quintessential holy mountain.

The summit is alive with people attending Mass,

eating, chatting, taking photographs, and reciting

prayers. There is a strong festive atmosphere as

hundreds of people gather for different reasons.

National and international media cover the event, with

photos of participants featuring in newspapers.

Cumulatively, these practices and supports assert

Croagh Patrick’s role as a pilgrimage space. Its

character and volume is an annual fulfilment of a

distinct role. No matter what else the mountain can be,

the eventfulness proclaims this spiritual function.

For the rest of the year, Croagh Patrick is a significant

recreational location. While it is climbed for religious-

spiritual reasons all year, it is now more popularly used

as a hillwalking and sporting venue, a tourist amenity,

and a place for charity events. Mountaineering Ireland

(2013) describes it as:

… arguably Ireland’s best known and busiest mountain. Its religious and cultural significance, and its dominant position in the landscape, have given Croagh Patrick iconic status that in turn has made the mountain a valuable resource for tourism.

performances (Kim, Kim & King, 2016; Maddrell &

della Dora, 2013; Power, 2015; Scriven, 2019a; Wu,

Chang & Wu, 2019). The fieldwork aspects of the

study incorporated these elements to enable a focus on

the located practices undertaken at both sites, and the

different meanings and patterns involved. In the next

two sections, a synthesis of our observations and

analysis highlights the range of actors and

performances found at the pilgrimage spaces under

examination.

Croagh Patrick

Approaching Croagh Patrick at dawn on Reek Sunday,

the annual pilgrimage day, the scale of the event is

conveyed through the traffic of cars and walkers, stalls

and vendors, mountain rescue teams, and crowds

already on the mountain. Reek Sunday is linked back

to the Celtic pagan harvest festival Lughnasadh and the

site’s Neolithic ritual status, and it is associated with St

Patrick’s evangelising mission in the fifth century

(Gibbons & Walsh 2005). A revival of the pilgrimage

in the 1890s lead to its prominence as one of the main

Roman Catholic destinations on the island; by 1950 an

estimated 100,000 pilgrims were taking part in a night

pilgrimage on Reek Sunday. More recently, crowds

range from 10,000-20,000, which is still a substantial

amount of people for a one day event.

The path to the Reek is animated by thousands of

pilgrims performing the pilgrimage together. O’Dwyer

(2013:44) describes the scene as that of:

Figure 2: Pilgrims praying by circling ‘St Patrick’s Bed’ on the summit of Croagh Patrick, in the back-ground a group is starting to gather for mass by the chapel.

can connect the earthly and the heavenly (Cosgrove &

della Dora, 2009). Furthering this dimension,

significant numbers go to the masses which are said

throughout the morning on the summit and there is a

constant queue for confessions. A sense of community

and belonging is generated in the shared experience of

the Mass, often with the congregation huddling

together in wind and rain (Williams, 2010). John, one

of the research participants, articulates his feelings of

sharing Eucharist on the mountain-top:

You are well out of it for then when you’re up there it is a great sense of achievement, if one is fortunate enough … to get mass when you’re there, that adds to it because we break bread together at the top...

Through his Roman Catholic faith he experiences this

Mass as a special way of connecting both with God

and his fellow pilgrims. The coalescing of landscape,

performance, events, and purposes enable people to

have meaningful encounters that enrich their

experiences.

Enabling the distinct religious aspects of the activity

are more secular features, including civil, voluntary,

and commercial bodies. Mountain rescue and first aid

services, stalls selling refreshments and landowners

Scriven & O’Mahony (Re)Inscribing Meaning: Embodied Religious-spiritual Practices, Ireland

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These different strands of practice are often overlaid

harmoniously, with occasionally tensions arising. In

this context, the significance of the annual pilgrimage

day is amplified as an occasion to reaffirm the

mountain’s role as a Roman Catholic space. The

pilgrimage simultaneously draws from and reinforces

the mountain’s historic sacred purpose. The enacted

religious narratives are embedded in landscapes

through the activity, demonstrating a legitimacy

(Brace, Bailey & Harvey, 2006; Blain & Wallis, 2004).

These elements are more observably and viscerally

present in the performance of the ‘Stations of the Reek’

a set of practices traditionally linked to the pilgrimage.

They consist of circling a cairn on the path, St Patrick’s

Bed (a grave-like structure on the summit), and the

chapel, reciting Roman Catholic prayers for the Pope’s

intentions. Signs on the route and prayer cards

distributed on the summit on pilgrimage days underline

this aspect as a means of adding or ensuring a clear

faith-based dimension to individual and collective

journeys. The reciting of prayers in a structured

manner, focused on physical features, forges

connections between the materiality of the mountain

and the ethereality of belief and the spiritual. Croagh

Patrick is created as a medium for the meeting of these

plains, a vertical space and an elevating landscape that

Figure 3: A stall selling refreshments, including teas and coffees, on the summit, facilitates pil-grims on their climb, while also supporting local traders.

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Volume 8(iv) 2020

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Multiple purposes and uses cohabit Croagh Patrick as

an intertwined religious / spiritual, socio-cultural,

recreational, and touristic space. Embodied mobilities

of Reek Sunday demonstrate the interactions of the

sacred and the secular as presence and practices that

can be mutually reinforcing. This opens up avenues to

appreciate how secularising process can influence and

change religious uses of spaces, while also enhancing

or adding tourist or cultural dimensions (Chen, 2017).

Our Lady’s Island

Our Lady’s Island is a Christian pilgrimage site located

in the south east of Ireland in county Wexford and in

the Catholic diocese of Ferns, about 20km from the

town of Wexford. The pilgrimage site is surrounded on

three sides by Loch Tóchair (the lake of the causeway)

and is joined to the mainland by a causeway. It has

been known by different names, such as ‘the meadow

of the women’ or ‘Mary’s Island’, and its place on the

circuit of medieval pilgrimages conducted following

the Anglo-Norman conquest of Ireland in the 12th

century is well established (Murphy, 1940). The

pilgrimage here has endured both the Counter-

reformation and the Penal Laws which prohibited

Catholic practice in Ireland (de Vál, 2007). The site is

part of a serene landscape: the ruins of the Norman

castle and a graveyard occupy a significant part of the

space and there is a holy well devoted to Mary on the

western side of the island.

Our Lady’s Island is crossed by multiple meanings.

The land is a state-owned Special Protection Area,

managed by the Irish National Parks and Wildlife

Service, which is of ‘ornithological importance for

both breeding and wintering birds, and is also an

important stop-over point for passage

migrants’ (National Parks & Wildlife Service, 2019:1).

It is also a popular natural leisure and tourism amenity

centring on the rich varieties of flora and fauna and on

a EuroVelo cycling route, and the lake’s place as only

one of two seepage lagoons in Ireland. In addition, the

site is adjacent to the main road to Rosslare Europort

(Ireland’s second busiest car ferry terminal). It is a

hybrid place, continuously coming into being through

religious performance and maintenance. The

pilgrimage rituals and liturgical celebration are held in

a space which is open to all for most of the year but for

one month is made a site of religious devotion.

The annual pilgrimage events are central to how

sacredness is brought into being and preserved on Our

Lady’s Island. The pilgrimage season opens on August

15th, marking the feast day of the Assumption of Mary

converting their fields to temporary carparks are

necessary to facilitate the pilgrimage. Reek Sunday’s

religious, cultural, and economic role are fully

acknowledged and supported by the community, civil

society organisations, and local authorities. The

corporeal and spatial manifestations of belief are

enabled by non-belief in a respectful and coalescing

matrix. These profane elements are also found in the

motivations of participants, many of whom do not

climb for spiritual reasons. The nuances involved are

captured by Ciarán as he outlines how he views his

role:

I wouldn't think of myself as a pilgrim, I'm undecided about religion, I am part of the Catholic Church but I don't hold that much belief in its teachings or ways … I go hill-walking quite a bit so I'd say I come under that term!

His appreciation of the Reek is multifaceted as he

recognises the spiritual and social heritage of the site as

well as the beliefs of pilgrims; however, he also locates

his experience within the arena of recreation. These

secular aspects illustrate the different features at work

in the pilgrimage, showing how a range of motivations

and actors coalesce to continue the tradition.

The significant increase in foot traffic has, however,

led to the deterioration of the path which has been

severely eroded in recent years (Jones, 2013; McNulty,

2019). Tensions have arisen between the different uses

of the site, with an emphasis on the need to preserve its

sacred function. Fr Frank Fahey, who was instrumental

to the revival of an ancient pilgrim path to Croagh

Patrick, points out that:

A sacred place has the power to impose its presence and sense of awe on the world. If, on the other hand, we conquer these mountains, they lose their sense of awe and of transcendent power (Ryan, 2011).

He recognises the cultural function of the site and its

use as a place for charitable fundraising but remains

critical of more commercial driven and sporting events.

Drawing parallels with Uluru in Australia, he

highlights the importance of respectful use of an

historical sanctified location, built on Pagan and

Christian traditions. This interpretation also draws

support from secular groups, such as the Fáilte Ireland

– the national tourism body - and the local Croagh

Patrick Archaeological Committee, who both

recognised its distinct cultural heritage and the

importance of nurturing it (Discover Ireland, 2018;

Hughes, 2005).

teachings. A woman calling over the public address

system calls pilgrims into place:

We ask now that everyone becomes still and quiet in preparation for the celebration of the Eucharist. Jesus said: ‘come spend a quiet hour with me’. In deference to His invitation, we switch off our mobile phones (transcribed from recording).

Seating is provided at the pilgrimage site, but some

stay in their cars on the causeway and they were later

asked to turn on their car’s hazard lights if they wished

to receive communion. Following Mass, the pilgrims

are asked to hold up any objects for blessing. A

monstrance and gospels are carried first, then

assembled priests, followed by ministers of the

Eucharist, of the Word and then the bishop, under a

processional canopy. Blessed flower petals, strewn by

that year’s First Communion class from the nearby

school, guide the path of the procession. As, the group

passes the Marian statue, proceeding on to the western

side of the island, some people stop to leave offerings

at its base or simply touch it and bless themselves.

These large scale, hierarchical and layered events

assert the spiritual dimensions of the space and ensure

its continuing religious function amongst its leisure,

tourist, and natural purposes.

Recent adjustments to the formal elements illustrate

how different religious-spiritual strands interact in post

-secular contexts. The pilgrimage tradition at Our

Lady’s Island combines the ceremonial religious

aspects and folk elements common at Irish pilgrimage

sites, including circling different parts of the site and

focusing devotions on saintly forces. A new emphasis

Scriven & O’Mahony (Re)Inscribing Meaning: Embodied Religious-spiritual Practices, Ireland

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and ends on September 8th. On the opening and closing

days, pilgrims are gathered near the enclosed altar in

rows of temporary seats. The pilgrimage consists of a

‘rounding’ with liturgical celebration based on the

exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at either end. The

route is intimately denominated in the official Our

Lady’s Island brochure (n.d.). The Rosary is inscribed

directly on to the landscape:

The ROSARY is the prayer of Our Lady’s Island. Pilgrims say 15 (20) Decades of the Rosary while making the round of the island. The ROSARY is the shape of Our Lady’s Island. The Church is the crucifix, the causeway is the Creed and introductory prayers, the decades are the round of the island.

On August 15th, as the crowd gathers for Mass, the

causeway fills up with cars. More pilgrims, from across

the south-east of Ireland, are left by their coach drivers

on the main road. They walk the short distance to the

pilgrimage site. Like Croagh Patrick, the site here has a

temporary infrastructure for the opening day. The

pilgrimage at Our Lady’s Island is a relatively informal

gathering: some meet at the church beforehand

(particularly wheelchair-using pilgrims), others browse

the extensive collection of miraculous medals and

ephemera at the gift shop. People seem to know the

routine of the day: doing as much as they can before

the rounding of the island.

The official religious events, consisting of a mass and

procession, act as the performative nodal point of the

day. They involved the organised mobilisations of

pilgrims in choreographed practice that both asserts the

spiritual character of the space and official Church

Figure 4: The procession on the feast of the Assumption at Our Lady’s Island.

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Volume 8(iv) 2020

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Discussion

Post-secularity provides the backdrop to an

understanding of how different threads of meaning and

purpose interweave contemporary pilgrimage spaces.

Both della Dora’s and Tse’s scaffolds illustrate how a

variety of religious, spiritual, social, cultural, and

political dimensions intersect in the performances,

materialities, and atmosphere of sacred sites. These

meetings are manifest in diverse forms from

coordinated alignments to palpable tensions.

Significantly, there are always a range of factors

involved. The practices at both pilgrimage sites suggest

three key points in understanding how the spiritual

character of these spaces are (re)inscribed.

Firstly, participation is central to the ongoing creation

and maintenance of Our Lady’s Island and Croagh

Patrick as sacred locations. Aligning with processual

understandings of place, our field studies demonstrate

the importance of the customs and ceremonies as the

means by which sanctity is engrained in both locations.

Tse’s (2014) grounded theologies are found in the

prayers and masses, traditional rituals and socialising,

volunteers and religious paraphernalia stalls.

Transcendent concerns are animated and shaped by the

is being placed on the official procession, with the

Eucharist and Gospel at the centre, over the vernacular

elements. Our Lady’s folk and ambiguous female

symbolism has been replaced by the centrality of the

word of God, in the person of Christ and personified in

the priest himself. In an interview, the parish priest

reinforced this message highlighting the power of the

Gospel with little reference to the traditional rites. The

re-establishment of orthodoxy is often found at

pilgrimage sites (Turner & Turner, 1978; Taylor,

1995). However, in the actual performance, subtle

tensions arose with some pilgrims choosing to follow

more colloquial practices by walking ahead of the

procession and leaving offerings at the holy well. Irish

Traveller women, who have a strong devotion to the

figure of Mary, emphasised the holy well in their

pilgrimage. This gendered sub-practice within the

context of the pilgrimage as a whole is noteworthy as it

remains outside the current ordering of the Church’s

understanding of the pilgrimage. In these negotiations,

both the casual and Church sanctioned activities (re)

created the space as sacred in different ways.

Examinations of religious-spiritual place-making need

to appreciate the nuances involved as the doctrinal and

creative, the dialectal and orderly operate in relation to

each other.

Figure 5: Pilgrims gathered around the holy well performing vernacular customs as part of their pilgrimage.

Patrick path by the larger numbers of people using it,

the religious-spiritual dimensions has been emphasised

as the purpose of the mountain; however, rather than

being a religious secular dichotomy, there are different

voices highlighting a range of practical and spiritual

points. The main aim of those involved remains the

sustainable use of the path which will enable both

pilgrimage and recreational uses. The nuances

involved are manifest differently on Our Lady’s Island

where the tension resides within the spiritual practices.

Discord emerges from judgments on the devotional

focus and nature of the rituals, with some pilgrims,

most visibly Travellers, choosing to follow more

traditional patterns while the clergy are emphasising

the liturgical and sacramental aspects in their re-

establishment of a formal rite. Here the plurality of

uses relates to religious expression, with each one

nonetheless contributing the forging of the Island as a

sacred space. Tse’s applied focus helps unravel these

situations and illustrates how tension can be found in

inter-religious interactions, as much as in spiritual-

secular dynamics.

The different enactments found at Our Lady’s Island

and Croagh Patrick are individual and collective

journeys that manifest faith and tradition which

becomes inscribed into the landscape. It is a form of

pentimento on the landscape as the underlining

numinous character is caused to reappear annually.

These sacred spaces are shaped and sustained through

continuous processes of (re)making that interact in

three-dimensional scales revealing the complexities

involved (della Dora, 2016). Spatial patterns and

material presences manifest the continuing role of

annual pilgrimages as events that are being preserved,

despite a context of decreasing religious practice. The

landscapes which host these performances do not

disappear as mere background but instead become

enacted as porous arenas at the meeting of history,

belief, activity and practicality.

Conclusion

This paper builds on research into contemporary

pilgrimage in Ireland to discuss the dynamics and

features we observed at two prominent sites. Our

Lady’s Island and Croagh Patrick exist at the porous

boundaries between vernacular custom, religious

ceremonies, and modern event management which

present layered case studies. Fresh understandings of

these places are reached by concentrating on the

practices at the sites and how they create, reinforce,

and disrupt different meanings. This interpretation

Scriven & O’Mahony (Re)Inscribing Meaning: Embodied Religious-spiritual Practices, Ireland

~ 10 ~

enactments at these sites as the spiritual and material

intermix through performance. The distinct character

of the Reek is witnessed and felt in the exertions of

pilgrims - the strain of the path embodies belief and

tradition - while on Lady’s Island the outdoor mass and

procession carries Roman Catholic observances

beyond the church building threading them across the

peninsula. In contrast to formal sacred spaces, such as

churches or built-up shrines like Knock or Lourdes,

these sites are open spaces with multiple purposes for a

range of groups and interests. The annual pilgrimages

present people with the opportunity to ensure that these

spaces continue to serve as spiritual venues. As much

as pilgrimage can be recognised as process to develop

or reaffirm individuals’ faith, it is simultaneously a

rallying point to reinforce the public role of these

locations and their associated rituals. Performances and

services are animating, buttressing personal faith and

sacred spaces.

Secondly, there are plural religious-spiritual and

secular dimensions involved that are central to how the

spaces are created and experienced. The focus on the

actions of pilgrims illustrates that instead of a

numinous discrete space being etched out of a profane

arena, various factors merge to generate the pilgrimage

sites. At Croagh Patrick, non-religious civil society

organisations, local authorities, and vendors are all

necessary to enable the event; while some are driven

by profit many volunteer their time in service of

tradition. Likewise, at both sites there are different

spiritual priorities among pilgrims with participation

centring on personalised motivations. In the religious

performances, these numerous dimensions align,

forging emotional and spiritual experiences that are

ingrained into the substance of these spaces. Della

Dora’s (2016:64) infrasecular geographies help explain

these processes as ‘dynamic palimpsests whose layers

move simultaneously at different speeds and scales’

that coexist, intertwine and grate. Both the profane and

devotional are required in the creation of both Our

Lady’s Island and Croagh Patrick, underlining the post-

secular character of these pilgrimages, as valued

spiritual customs hovering between cultural heritage

and personal devotion.

Finally, the frictions identified, illustrate the evolving

nature of these sites and a reassertion of their religious-

spiritual functions. Strains and disputes are part of the

located aspect of grounded theologies as an

acknowledgment of the social and political forces that

continue to frame sacred spaces (Tse, 2014). In

controversy surrounding the damage to the Croagh

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Volume 8(iv) 2020

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