Máméan Pilgrim Path
Pilgrimages are never meant to be easy! Pilgrim sites are often located in remote and difficult places to access. Yesterday I visited the stunningly beautiful Máméan situated in a mountain pass in the Maamturk Mountains. Máméan (Pass of the Birds) is one of the those really ancient sites that stretch back into the mists of time. It certainly feels like that when you reach the Chapel.
The act of pilgrimage is back in vogue or certainly the major walking routes such as the Camino routes in Spain and the Via Francigena are; the reasons are many but for modern pilgrims religious reasons are less likely than those of self discovery, spiritual reasons and a sense of adventure.
Here in Ireland Croagh Patrick, Lough Derg and Knock Shrine are three long established and extremely popular pilgrimages. But there are many other lesser known places of pilgrimage which as Louise Nugent points out in her book, ‘Journeys of Faith’ a local pilgrimage reinforces the bonds of the local community and acts as a cohesive force.
Today is Reek Sunday, when thousands normally flock to Croagh Patrick, Ireland’s Holy Mountain but due to Covid Reek Sunday has been cancelled. This site is also associated with Saint Patrick. There is a well close by the Chapel named after our patron saint. Patrick is reputed to have come up the Pass from Joyce country, down in Maam Valley, and to have blessed the lands of Connemara and converting it to Christianity.
The path across the mountain is much older and it can be tricky to traverse! It’s possible to experience four seasons weather up here in the space of a few minutes and there is plenty of water under foot.
The pilgrimage to Máméan fell into disrepute in the 19th century due due drunkeness and fighting, no doubt fuelled by the plentiful supply of locally made poitín! Many of these pattern days were closed down by the church during the 18th and 19th century but his allowed the purely religious aspect of the pilgrimage to survive and prosper (Peter Harbison, ‘Pilgrimage in Ireland’). Máméan was revived thanks to the great work of a local priest who family had sheep on the mountain, Fr Micheál Mac Gréil, and there are now three pilgrim dates on the local calendar – St Patrick’s Day, Good Friday and the first Sunday in August.
The site also features a mass rock which was used during the time of the Penal Laws, when it was forbidden to say mass in Ireland. There are also stones of the cross spread across the site.
Whether you have an interest in pilgrimage or not, this is a pilgrim path worth visiting. The views are stunning in all directions and the route is part of the long distance walking route, The Western Way.
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