So our pilgrimage draws to an end here in Ennis Cathedral, not far from where the Sheahans lived before they left Limerick City, or the O’Learys and Maloneys before they left Tralee, or the Loughlins headed to the boat from Killarney or the Sweeneys came down to Cobh from Bandon or the Moroneys from Cork.
They all left, some when things were going well and some when the potatoes were all black and rotten. They all left like we are tomorrow morning for a new world across the ocean.
The journey will be easier for us. But it won’t really be that different.
For they and we are all on a pilgrimage, making our pilgrim way through this world, enjoying the sites, seeking to be loving and being loved, struggling to find God’s will and to do it.
And while this little pilgrimage to the Celtic isles is drawing to a close, our pilgrimage goes on, and will never end until we reach our heavenly homeland, with the Regans and the Gallaghers, the Moakleys and McDonalds and all the others.
May God make us good pilgrims, and show us the way home.
