Saint Patrick's Way: a North-South Camino

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Leo Varadkar, TD, has set up a review of tourism policy and requested submissions from stakeholders (see Appendix 1 and 2). This submission proposes that the government should encourage the planning, design and development of a North-South Saint Patrick Way pilgrim walk, similar to the Camino in Spain, in partnership with the relevant Northern Ireland authorities. This development will make an important impact in economic and tourism terms, but also in other ways. The submission outlines the relationship between tourism and pilgrimage and discusses the international ‘gold standard’ of pilgrim walks, the Camino (Saint James Way).1 Following this, it summarises developments to date on Saint Patrick’s Way and proposes that the Minister and his department should take this project forward in partnership with the Northern Ireland government.