Last week on  the 8th and 9th of June , I presented a paper ‘Learning from Pilgrimage in Medieval Ireland: Pilgrimage at Croagh Patrick from medieval to modern times’  at a conference organised by Kevin Griffin of  the ATLAS Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Special Interest Group .  The theme of the conference was “Not Losing the ‘Pilgrimage’ in the Pilgrimage Tourism Experience’ and the event was held at NUI Maynooth .  Over the two days  18 speakers  talked about a wide range of topics from product development, history of pilgrimage,  walking routes,  pilgrimage at holy wells  and walking the Camino de Santiago. It’s really hard to single out any one talk as all were great but  Terry Cunningham’s  showcased St Declan’s Way, a pilgrim route very close to my heart, and Attracta Brownlee’s  paper on Irish travellers and pilgrimage were fascinating.  The conference ended with a  field trip to Clonmacnoise and a boat trip around Lough Ree .