Paper short abstract:

Brigid's Way, a newly-configured pilgrimage route in Ireland, is analyzed as a location where people make meaningful connections with history, cultural traditions and national and 'Celtic' identities and also as a space where symbolic boundaries around identities and traditions can be revealed.

Paper long abstract:

Ireland's new and refurbished pilgrimage routes can tell us much about continuity and change in regard to cultural traditions and engagement with religious heritage. At particular pilgrimage routes a nexus is formed between different group identities and worldviews—Celtic Christian, contemporary Pagan, and others. This paper focuses on the example of Brigid's Way, a trail starting near Dundalk in County Louth and finishing in County Kildare; the pilgrims can join for one day up to the full nine days of the pilgrimage. The route takes in ancient sites with several centuries of development and associated layers of meaning and incorporates different religious heritages—ancient royal pagan sites and centres of druidic power alongside sites of the early and medieval Christian periods. Central to this route is a holy well and a shrine containing a 'sacred flame', associated with both the pre-Christian goddess figure and the Christianized version in the form of the saint. By examining the activities along the route, as well as the discourses around it, this paper aims to show how place, practices and identities are interconnected, and how religious and cultural heritage is being engaged with and 're-storied' by way of pilgrimage.