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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, [email protected]
Eoin O'Mahony University College Dublin, [email protected]
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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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(Re)Inscribing Meaning: Embodied Religious-spiritual Practices at Croagh Patrick (Re)Inscribing Meaning: Embodied Religious-spiritual Practices at Croagh Patrick and Our Lady’s Island, Ireland and Our Lady’s Island, Ireland
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 [email protected]
Eoin O'Mahony University College Dublin, Ireland [email protected]
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
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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.
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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.
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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
~ 11 ~
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