April, the month that Chaucer’s pilgrims saddled up for Canterbury, telling tall tales along the way, and in which the feast of Easter is most likely to fall. Anyone who has spent Easter in Spain will know of the impressive religious spectacles and processions held in many parts. While living in Navarre in 2022, IContinue reading “Easter and Granada”
Category Archives: Blog
Patron saints for the times in which we live
As the feast of St Patrick falls in the middle of this month (17th March), I thought it might be a good time to look at Santiago’s position as patron of Spain and some of the challengers whom he has faced along over the centuries. I wrote previously about how Santiago’s position as patron wasContinue reading “Patron saints for the times in which we live”
Finding love on the Camino
The title of this post might be a bit misleading because although it’s inspired by St Valentine’s Day, it’s not about those pilgrim romances that somehow develop while we’re all daily in a physically unattractive state that would never pass muster for a date in civil society. Rather it’s about a practice I encountered onContinue reading “Finding love on the Camino”
Kerry and the Spanish Civil War (2)
My article “Reverend Robert Hilliard: the Kerry clergyman who died fighting for the Spanish Republic” was published in The Kerryman (14th January 2026)
Padrón, peppers and preaching
The town of Padrón lies about 25km south of Santiago de Compostela (for those of you who use alternative measurement systems, in miles that’s 15.5, or in Camino it’s a day’s walk), and is perhaps best known internationally for the pimientos de Padrón (Padrón peppers), small peppers fried in oil until they blister and areContinue reading “Padrón, peppers and preaching”
Kerry and the Spanish Civil War (1)
My article “Remembering and forgetting the Kerry dead of the Spanish Civil War” was published in The Kerryman (8th November 2025).
Santiago’s other feast day — 30th of December
As Christmas rolls around and Camino kids get excited at whether Santa Claus or the Reyes Magos will leave a pair of hiking boots in their stockings, a few might notice that the Christmas period also sees the feast of Santiago/St James. Some of you will have enjoyed the celebrations of the feast of SantiagoContinue reading “Santiago’s other feast day — 30th of December”
Santiago peregrino (‘the pilgrim’): a saint just like you?
Since literacy levels were low in the middle ages, artists used a variety of iconographic means to communicate to their audiences, not least to help the viewer identify the subject of their works. Saints, in particular, were recognizable by how they dressed and by items associated with a defining event in their lives or theirContinue reading “Santiago peregrino (‘the pilgrim’): a saint just like you?”
Remembering John Brierley (1948-2023)
A while back I was asked to pen a tribute to John Brierley (1948-2023), for the Camino Society Ireland. He was the author of the most significant set of guides to the Camino in the English language (I discussed the maps in them previously) and a key figure in the modern history of the CaminoContinue reading “Remembering John Brierley (1948-2023)”
What is ‘authentic’ on the Camino?
What is ‘authentic’ on the Camino? It’s a word that gets bandied about a lot but — having recently looked at the Pórtico de la Gloria app (available to download here) — I want to put a thought out there. Speaking as a medieval historian, I have no problem saying that the Pórtico is theContinue reading “What is ‘authentic’ on the Camino?”
Denis Casey 