The Pilgrimage and the Evolution of Spiritual Tourism conference, which was the first of its kind in Ireland, was an exciting new collaboration
A conference titled Pilgrimage and the Evolution of Spiritual Tourism held at SETU on Friday 9 March was an outstanding success drawing people of diverse interests from the four corners of Ireland as well as from Germany, Luxembourg, Romania, the UK, the USA, and Canada.
International phenomenon
The event reflected an international multi-faith phenomenon in which an estimated 200 million people around the world engage in pilgrimage every year. The conference, which was the first of its kind in Ireland, was an exciting new collaboration between the Spirituality Institute for Research and Education (SpIRE) in Dublin and the Department of Languages, Tourism, and Hospitality at the School of Humanities at South East Technological University (WIT) and built on the already existing relationship SpIRE has with SETU because of its role in the SETU MA in Applied Spirituality in Dublin.
Dr Michael O’Sullivan, SJ, Director of SpIRE, Programme Leader of the MA in Applied Spirituality, and overall coordinator of the conference, said that with ecological concerns becoming more prevalent the idea of going on pilgrimage is a “way of evoking and expressing a spirituality connected with the natural world”.
Why people are drawn to pilgrimage
First keynote speaker Dr Dee Dyas, Director of the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture and the Centre for Pilgrimage Studies at the University of York, who is conducting fieldwork on contemporary pilgrims, looked at why people are drawn to pilgrimage in the first place. Her focus was on cathedrals in England. A visit to a cathedral was a multi-sensory experience in medieval times. The massive shrines drew the attention of the eye, pilgrims smelled the heavy incense and beeswax, heard the chanted liturgy and tinkling bells, or perhaps they walked in procession through the sacred spaces, and touched, caressed, and kissed the holy places. However, pilgrimage and ritual were discouraged in the Reformation. Yet, according to Dr Dyas, recent years have witnessed a massive revival in interest in rituals there such as the now common sight of candles and flowers at scenes of death or tragedy such as the Grenfell Tower disaster in London.
Certification of European cultural routes
Dr Stefano Dominioni, the second keynote speaker, travelled from Luxembourg where he oversees the certification of European Cultural Routes across the 47 member states of the EU. The first cultural route designated by the Council of Europe was the Santiago de Compostela. The philosophy underpinning the declaration of the Camino as a cultural route is the same bridge-building ethos that has guided the council of Europe in selecting 31 cultural routes to date, that these pilgrim trails may inspire young and old today to travel these routes in order ‘to build a society founded on tolerance, respect for others, freedom and solidarity.’
Pilgrim paths of Ireland
John O’Dwyer delighted the audience with his personal stories of walking the pilgrim paths of Ireland. John has always enjoyed hiking. His trekking led to his authoring articles for the Irish Times on journeys throughout Ireland. When he was asked by Collins Press to write a book on Ireland’s pilgrim paths, religious routes which have been used by pilgrims since ancient times, he walked them himself first, from Slieve Mish in Antrim to Skellig Michael. His well-received guide Pilgrim Paths in Ireland is now updated with five additional journeys, including Kerry's Cnoc na dTobar. Not only do these pilgrimages offer peace and spiritual renewal, but they are also, John emphasised, a source of income and esteem for local communities.
Change in practice
In addition to the activities in the main conference hall, which was full to the brim, parallel sessions took place in other auditoriums at SETU. Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) was represented by Dr Kevin Griffin, tourism lecturer, and researcher Vreny Enongene. Vreny outlined the way pilgrim practices have changed in Ireland while Dr Griffin spoke about the way in which the spirituality of the tour guide affects the experience of the visitor to a sacred site.
Mystic Hildegard
From Germany, Dr Annette Esser, an expert on Hildegard of Bingen, described how the newly established Bingen trail encapsulates the visions and insights of the mystic Hildegard along the path.
Carlow corner
Dermot Mulligan, Carlow Museum curator, spoke about the revival of interest in St Willibrord of Luxembourg, his Carlow connections and the unique ‘hopping procession’.
Carlow woman Dr Maura McNally presented her PhD study on the impact of pilgrimage to Medjugorje on individuals she interviewed.
From Palestine to Ireland
Lesley O’Connor, a graduate of the MA in Applied Spirituality in Dublin, spoke about her extended trip to Palestine and how it transformed and inspired her. Deirdre Ni Chinnéide reflected on the joys and challenges bringing pilgrims to sacred sites on the Aran Islands over the past 10 years. Karen Ward, a Dublin-based psychotherapist spoke about another pilgrim path, this one revived by herself and Celtic spirituality scholar and also a conference speaker, Dolores Whelan, from the birth place of St Brigid in Faughart to Kildare town. Liz Murray, also a graduate of the SETU MA in Dublin, spoke of her research in Dalkey, the home of St Begnet, and its impact on those in her study.
Ethics and tours
Other presenters included Prof Laura Beres, from Canada on an ethical approach to pilgrimage, the fuller version of whose text will be published in the Journal for the Study of Spirituality, and Nadine Eckmann, a spiritual tourism researcher in UCC who presented findings on how tour companies are portraying sites such as the Cliffs of Moher and the Hill of Uisneach as ‘mystic’.
Future plans
It is hoped that the conference will be followed up by further initiatives in spiritual tourism and academia, in particular a pilgrim tour-guide educational module designed especially for the Tourism and Hospitality department at SETU and a collaborative research initiative with the RIKON Research Centre at SETU.