Presenter Regan Hutchins began the pilgrimage that took up most of this edition of Heart and Soul (18 August and online) in the agreeable surroundings of a meadow in County Wicklow.

Heart and Soul: The Pilgrim Paths of Ireland
BBC world service

Presenter Regan Hutchins began the pilgrimage that took up most of this edition of Heart and Soul (18 August and online) in the agreeable surroundings of a meadow in County Wicklow. Here, sensible footwear doubtless in place, he and the writer Bébhinn Ramsay contemplated the 27 km (17 miles) excursion, otherwise known as St Kevin’s Way, that would take them up into the Wicklow Hills and eventually to Glendalough, the saint’s sixth-to-seventh-century spiritual home and the site of several churches and a ruined monastery.

For Bébhinn (pictured, below), one of the churches by the lake had a special significance. It was here, in 2002, that she had married her husband, Alastair. The marriage, which produced two sons, lasted until 2007. Then, on the first night of a family trip to Yosemite, Alastair fell dangerously ill and was rushed to hospital. A sympathetic nurse who had witnessed his helicopter transfer from one medical centre to another held out hope of recovery, but 24 hours later, with what turned out to be complications from a streptococcal infection, he was dead.

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