A different light

Like Woody Allen, I now believe only in sex and death, except that after death you don't feel like a smoke. So when the local Lourdes committee invited me to travel with the Armagh Diocesan Pilgrimage as one of the medical officers, I agreed only out of a sense of duty. I did not look forward to it, expecting mostly to be revolted by the squalid commerciality and exploitation of other people's suffering.

The pilgrimage is a major event in Crossmaglen; fundraising goes on all year, and a large party of nurses, lay helpers, and ordinary pilgrims accompanies the sick. The local doctors help to prioritise and choose the patients who might benefit …