In today s Ireland that tradition is renewed in other forms by young Irish people volunteering to work in the developing world. Without engaging in any kind of religious imperialism the spirituality of these volunteers their vision, ideals and self-giving energies might be harnessed to a more worthy celebration of Patrick, who returned to the land of his enslavement to preach the gospel of freedom. His was indeed a spiritual quest, endured in real hardship. As his writing, photographs and paintings made at the time indicate, the mystical element, or the altered consciousness as he might call it, transcends both the hardships undergone and the distractions encountered. Up to 6,000 people climbed the Reek while he was there.
Spirituality is finally about human freedom and fulfilment.
For all the extension of choice in so many areas which the new prosperity offers Irish people and they are not to be simply denied or denigrated many people feel themselves enslaved in various ways. The Celtic tiger can be a hard task-master as the daily commuter knows only too well. At least that is the kind of question one might ask on St Patrick s Day. For those for whom the question is pointless because they have no sense of enslavement or darkness, as well as for those who are all too conscious of darkness and are beginning to despair of modern materialist Ireland, a few stanzas from a poem by the great Spanish mystic, John of the Cross, as translated by Seamus Heaney, may offer some insight or solace. How well I know that fountain, filling, running, although it is the night.