OPINION (AN COLÚN): Offaly pilgrims on Spain's sacred road

OUR busy lives sometimes mean we don't get the exercise we need. It's easy to get caught up in the hurly-burly of life's unending tasks. There comes a time when we have to briefly park them to one side and prioritise care for our bodies instead; because if we don't the aches and pains might increase gradually, endowing life with an ever more bitter savour.
Over the last couple of years I've been suffering intermittent, severe pain in various parts of my body. Things deteriorated so much that driving my car became excruciatingly painful and many simple household tasks became ever more fraught with discomfort and suffering. Hobbies that I love became more difficult and wrapped in questions. For example, with hillwalking I asked myself questions like, should I shorten my walks? Could my body break down badly leaving me in a tough predicament, high up a mountain, miles from the nearest road?
I did a lot of research in books and online trying to find solutions for this bodily deterioration. Stretching helped, as did massage and orthotics; but I was still a far way physically from where I wanted to be. Eventually the penny dropped that probably the best thing of all was weight resistance training. I bought a pair of dumbbells and started training regularly with them, about half-an-hour a day every couple of days. This proved incredibly beneficial. The transformation was quasi miraculous. I had finally tracked down the root of the problem. It was muscular deterioration in various parts of my body. Now I could begin to start dreaming again. I began to dream of new walks to try and old favourite walks to revisit. I now possessed confidence that my body would be able to tackle them. One of the old favourites was the Camino de Santiago which I walked back in 2003 with my wife, aunt and mother. Since 2003 this wonderful trek has become considerably more popular for Irish people to walk. In a world which is much more secular than it used to be, this rise in popularity perhaps points to a spiritual hunger which still exists within our being, seeking connection with the religious and the divine.
My Camino walk covered more than a third of the total route, covering the last 300 kilometres between the cities of Léon and Santiago. This entailed stages of 22 kilometres each day and seven or eight hour days. This was a journey through beautiful countryside and there was a blessed lack of tarmacadam. Prior to the walk I had been worried that we would be walking on long tracts of tarmacadam as can often happen with long waymarked routes. In fact the route utilised old bridle paths, and forest trails through charming, rural landscapes and ancient villages, past Romanesque chapels and magnificent churches. We passed through Galicia. The landscape and culture of this region resembles Ireland. The hand of the Celts could be felt here too. The music is similar to our traditional music, as are some of the artistic motifs.
Our Camino finished at Obradoiro Square, in the old part of Santiago, in front of the west facade of the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral. The western facade is a masterpiece of Baroque architecture which one writer memorably called, “hats in the air exuberance”. It consists of two towers, rich ornamentation and large openings. Inside, a service was in progress and our timing was fortunate because we were able to see the botafumeiro in operation. This is a giant incense burner which takes eight men to operate. It swings in enormous 30 metre arcs and is an impressive sight when it's being swung. After this we proceeded to the pilgrim's office where we presented our Pilgrim's Passport and were given our Compostela, which is a certificate written in Latin. In the office we were also asked to fill out a form. One of the questions was, what was the primary reason for our pilgrimage? I wrote down “spiritual”. I was able to see the answers given to this question by many other pilgrims. Most of them had also written that their reason for walking the pilgrimage was spiritual.
This week I've been reading a fascinating book about medieval Irish pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela. This book reveals that there were at least two pilgrims to Santiago from Offaly during the Middle Ages, including a woman from Éile (Ely O'Carroll), the territory covering south Offaly and North Tipperary and ruled by the O'Carroll family. Mairgréag Ní Chearbhaill was the daughter of Tadhg Ó Cearbhaill. She married An Calbhach Ó Conchobhair Fáilghe and their principal residence was located on the west side of Croghan hill in east Offaly from the 1420s to the 1450s. Mairgréag undertook pilgrimages to Santiago in 1445 and 1451. Like many medieval pilgrims Mairgréag had a strong interest in the acquisition of indulgences through pilgrimage. She died in 1451. Her husband An Calbhach also travelled the sacred road to Santiago in 1451.

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