Ballintubber Abbey to build heritage and cultural centre
The 800-year-old Ballintubber Abbey in Co Mayo is aiming to become a centre of pilgrimage, with the addition of a heritage and cultural centre.
Construction is due to begin next year on the new section which will compliment the existing church building and incorporate preserved ruins at the site.
Speaking to RTÉ news Abbey Manager Suellen McKenna said the heritage centre will be a three-story extension.
"The ground floor will be depicting the 800 years of the abbey. The second story will be dedicated to the Tóchar Phádraig and pilgrimage walks, and the third story will be a journey through mankind."
Money for the renovation was sanctioned last year. Ballintubber Abbey Trust received €5.8 million from the Government's Rural Regeneration and Development Fund.
Ballintubber Abbey is the starting point for pilgrims who walk the Tóchar Phádraig, or Patrick's Causeway. This is a 35km pilgrim route from Ballintubber to the top of Croagh Patrick.
St Patrick is said to have fasted and prayed along the route as he spread the Christian message in Ireland in the fifth century.
In the 1980s, the path was revitalised as a pilgrimage walk with the help of Ballintubber's Fr Frank Fahey.
Fr Fahey still meets pilgrims and advises them to light a candle before they depart.
He urges pilgrims to talk to fellow walkers about their lives and to offer up their sore feet as an act of penance.
"Pilgrimage is always associated with penance. So, the penance is that during the day when walking the 22 miles, there is to be no complaining," he said.
"For the things that you could complain about, you say thanks be to God."
Ballintubber Abbey organises several walks a year on the Tóchar Phádraig.
"You can see Croagh Patrick in the background. You come across every kind of terrain, and nature, and animal along the route." said Ms McKenna.
Pilgrim path expert and guidebook author John G O'Dwyer said the Tóchar Phádraig goes back even further than St Patrick.
"This would have been a pagan trail, and Croagh Patrick was a pagan mountain."
He said the route to the mountain was once travelled by royalty in horse-drawn chariots, and some of the ancient stones from that road are visible in the ground.
"It's older than the Spanish Camino," he said, adding that the trail is at least 2,000 years old.
"The Camino is only a little bit over 1,000 years."
Pilgrim paths are growing in popularity, according to Mr O'Dwyer.
His latest guidebook details journeys that can be made on foot in a day or in stages over several days.
"For example, you have St Finbarr's pilgrim path in Cork, Cnoc na DTobar, Cosán na Naomh on the Dingle Peninsula."
Mr O'Dwyer also notes a rise in foreign visitors coming to Ireland specifically to walk a pilgrim path. Some, he said, walk for the challenge and scenery, others walk as an act of faith.
So, what level of walking is involved for Patrick's Causeway? "It's not the same as training for a marathon," said Mr O'Dwyer.
"But you do need to be reasonably fit. If you want to smell the flowers and hear the sheep, I'd suggest you walk to the abbey at Aughagower, then on the second day you do Croagh Patrick."
Mr O'Dwyer said the benefits of walking in the footsteps of our ancestors and the saints are many.
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