Hopes are high for Our Lady’s Island Pilgrimage
WHILE some major question marks had hung over whether this year’s pilgrimage, which sees thousands of people travel to Our Lady’s Island over the course of a few weeks between August and September, would be able to go ahead, Pilgrimage Director Fr Jim Cogley is now feeling optimistic in the wake of the latest lifting of some Covid-19 restrictions.
‘It looks like it’ll be going ahead subject to restrictions,’ he said. ‘You’d hope that the two-metre rule will have been lifted by August and we’ll be able to proceed as normal. We intend to have our Sunday services outside in a tent on the green and I’m currently working on lining up our speakers for this year.’
So far, due to speak at this year’s Pilgrimage are Director of Spirit Radio Rob Clarke; Lorcan Brennan, who will be launching a new book called ‘Soul Purposes’; and, of course, Fr Jim himself, who will also be launching a book of reflections from his own life.
‘We are hoping to go ahead as normal,’ he said. ‘A lot of it will be out in the open air and we think it will be fine. People can even stay in their cars or bring their own chairs, etc, if there’s any problem, but we’ll wait and see what kind of restrictions we have to work with. I would be hopeful that we’ll be able to proceed in some form regardless.’