Bill O'Herlihy, along with 15,000 other pilgrims, visits "The Reek" as it is commonly known on National Pilgrimage Day, which falls on the last Sunday of July each year.

Croagh Patrick is 2,510 feet high, almost 3 miles from base to peak, and takes 3 hours to climb to the top. For many, this all night vigil of pain and endurance represents the roots of their religion - Christianity and the Cross and the "Suffering Irish".For 11 hundred years, men and women have climbed Croagh Patrick with a primitive and purging faith.

The film shows young and old climbing the mountain booted or bare foot in wet, cold and blustery conditions. According to folklore, St. Patrick climbed the mountain and fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.

Another interpretation says that the pilgrimage emerged from a Christian adaptation of a pagan festival. For many, it is now a personal pilgrimage and mass at the top of the reek marks the sacrifice made by the pilgrims.

The meanings assigned to the pilgrimage are many and varied and include: penitential exercise, a physical challenge, a tradition, and a way to pass the night.

Bill O'Herlihy reports for '7 Days' on the pilgrimage to Croagh Patrick, Co. Mayo. This report was first broadcast on 31 July 1970.

'Seven Days' (it later became '7 Days') began broadcasting on 26 September 1966 and was RTÉ television's flagship current affairs programme for ten years.

The programme's young production team was made up of producer Lelia Doolan, directors Eoghan Harris and Dick Hill, and reporters John O'Donoghue, Brian Cleeve and Brian Farrell. Muiris Mac Conghail became producer of '7 Days' in 1967 when the programme was merged with another current affairs programme, 'Division'.

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