An Investigation of Spiritual Practices which can enrich the Experience of Pilgrims walking Pilgrimage Routes in the South East of Ireland
Given that pre-Covid up to 150 million people visited religious sites each and every year, it is evident that spiritual tourism is a flourishing activity. This thesis will investigate how the ancient pilgrim paths in the South East of Ireland which incorporate so many elements of old Irish / Celtic spirituality may be developed as attractive spiritual tourism sites for contemporary pilgrims. It is notable that the Irish pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago each year are amongst the top ten most numerous national groups, so nationally and internationally the expected impact of this project seems promising. There is a great abundance of potential pilgrim routes in the South East of Ireland. The proposed PhD seeks to
(i) Identify central elements of the pilgrimage experience as identified by returned Camino walkers who live in the South East;
(ii) Develop an in-depth profile of four potential pilgrim routes of the South East;
(iii) Analyse participant responses to sample pilgrim events on the four sample routes;
(iv) Calibrate the findings against the insights of members of the Board of the British Pilgrimage Trust regarding authentic pilgrimage experience;
(v) Propose a Plan of Action for developing a suite of sustainable, tourist-attractive, authentic pilgrim routes in the South East.
The central research method will be semi-structured interviews carried out with a sample of returned Camino walkers. Using a uniform set of questions with all participants will allow space for the emergence of other questions that arise through personal pilgrim experience. This project will ultimately contribute to creating a stream of new activities within the Ireland’s Ancient East brand; it will support communities in Ireland’s South East in designing local, unique pilgrimage offerings; the findings have the potential to inform micro / niche / slow pilgrimage offerings internationally.