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04 Nov 2025
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04 Nov 2025
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Twins Ava and Laoise Wallace, 16, on their first pilgrimage to Lourdes; Annette Byrnes, 70s, on her 44th year making the pilgrimage I PICTURES: Michael Cowhey
THIS year’s Limerick Diocesan Pilgrimage was attended by a range of people, from first-timers to seasoned wayfarers.
Twins Ava and Laoise Wallace, 16, were two of the younger attendees of this year’s pilgrimage.
A combination of positive feedback from volunteers who had been before, encouragement from their parish priest, and an enjoyable experience with the Anois programme led to the girls’ decision to go on the trip as youth volunteers.
The highlight of the trip was clear: getting to help people. Laoise explained that making sure the assisted pilgrims were able to go on the trip and making the trip easier for them was very important to her, while Ava commented that you get “a real sense of achievement at the end of the day because you’ve done something good for others”.
The Laurel Hill Coláiste students spoke of how much they enjoyed the trip, and how “very grateful” they were for the opportunity.
They insisted that they would “absolutely” go again and can totally understand why people keep going back.
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Annette Byrnes, 70s, clearly shares the sentiment, as she has visited Lourdes 44 times in her lifetime. “It should be 48!” she tells me, with bad weather and the pandemic getting in the way over the years.
She too finds helping the assisted pilgrims to be a valuable and worthwhile endeavour, and says that the pilgrimage to Lourdes “means everything” to her.
Ms Byrnes has watched the magic of the pilgrimage be discovered throughout the generations, having watched her parents go before her and now witnessing the younger cohort make their own way.
Ms Byrnes has no intention of ending her journey with Lourdes any time soon, and hopes that her decades of experience might help the newcomers on their journey.
Ava Wallace maintained that this was the case, saying “it was nice to go with people who’d been before because they were able to tell you where to go, you weren’t getting lost”.
The consensus throughout the generations is that “it’s a really magical experience,” and will not be the last for any of these pilgrims.
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