With less than two weeks to go in the season of three-day pilgrimages at Lough Derg, indications are that pilgrims are getting younger and more men are taking part.
And while numbers are slightly down on last year's Jubilee figures, the underlying trend is upwards.
Approximately 11,000 people will have taken part in a three day pilgrimage this year when the season ends, compared to 12,250 last year. More than half are under 35, with the usual three-to-one proportion of women to men nearer the 50-50 mark.
Most pilgrims come from Dublin and Cork, with a constant presence from Canada, the US, and EU countries. Members of all Christian denominatons take part, as well as followers of other religions, and of none.
The nature of the pilgrimage appears to have changed. Mgr Richard Mohan, prior at the island, said people's emphasis seemed to have shifted from seeing it as a penitential exercise to an experience of deepening one's spirituality.
He recalled a conversation with one young pilgrim this year who said he was not attracted to Lough Derg because his parents had talked about it the same way they talked about Lent. "It was something to be `done' and which `had to be put up with'."
But the young man's brother had undertaken the three-day pilgrimage recently and told him: "It is much more spiritual than that." That too had been the young man's experience.
The pilgrimage "gives people an opportunity to grow spiritually", Mgr Mohan said, "whether through the quality of the liturgy, or the openness of other pilgrims, it offers people a good positive experience which uplifts them".
Of the fasting, lack of sleep - during one 24-hour period in the three days a pilgrim does not sleep at all - or walking barefoot while carrying out various spiritual exercises, he said these allowed for "an emptying" which helped people get in touch with themselves. This in turn allowed them to get in touch with God. He quoted the theologian Karl Rahner: "When we get in touch with ourselves, then we experience God."
A survey of pilgrims last year indicated that 40 per cent were there to deepen their relationship with God, while a further 30 per cent went to the island for peace and tranquillity.
Among the things not allowed on the island are food, sweets, chewing gum, alcoholic drinks, cameras, mobile phones, radios, personal stereos, musical instruments, games, articles, and literature for sale or distribution.
Fasting begins at midnight on the first day, during which pilgrims are expected to arrive at the island between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., and ends at midnight on the day pilgrims arrive home.
However a "Lough Derg meal" is allowed each day, when people can eat as much as they want of dry bread/toast/oatcake, with black tea or coffee.
Booking is not necessary for the three-day pilgrimage but it is required for the one-day retreats which begin in mid-August (phone 072-61518).
And though not yet as successful as the Glenstal prayer book, sales of a new CD, Pilgrim Praise: The Spirit of Lough Derg are brisk. It is a live recording of hymns from the three-day pilgrimage.
