Borrisoleigh Historical Society lecture next Monday

On Monday next, April 24, we welcome celebrated archaeologist, researcher and author, Dr Louise Nugent to Borrisoleigh Community Centre for a talk starting at 8pm.

Dr Nugent will deliver a lecture on The Pilgrim Paths of Tipperary. The talk will discuss medieval pilgrimage in Ireland with special emphasis on the Tipperary pilgrim sites of Holycross Abbey and Monaincha.

Later years have seen a renewed interest in these ancient pilgrimage trails. St Declan’s Way, from the famous Rock of Cashel to Ardmore in County Waterford, is perhaps one of the better known pilgrimage paths, featuring of late on numerous television programmes. In the past number of years, much local effort has seen the reusing of such paths in nearby Kilcommon and Ardmayle. On a lesser scale but of no less importance, are the number of Mass Paths that were once a feature of our [and other] parish.

The idea of ‘pilgrimage’ has long predated trips to places such as Lourdes and Fatima. Pilgrimage has long been an integral part of the Christian tradition, based on the notion of mankind as a pilgrim being forever journeying towards eternity.

Dr Nugent’s main research interests are medieval roads, pilgrimage and medieval pilgrim souvenirs. In 2001 she completed a Master’s thesis at University College Cork on The Rian Bó Phádraig, a medieval pilgrim road running from Cashel to Ardmore Co Waterford. In 2010 she completed a doctoral thesis Pilgrimage in Medieval Ireland AD 600-1600 at the school of Archaeology at University College Dublin. She curates the blog pilgrimage in Medieval Ireland.