achill island

Irish Examiner needs a geography lesson

Ireland

Related to an article about Conor Cruise O’Brien’s red bias in RTE. Perhaps the letter was a deliberate fake if they are quoting from the address on the letter. Some of the passages are hilarious in which case, if it was taken seriously, geography lessons should have been required much further up the line.

Writing on March 20, 1978, Joseph O’Reilly of Achill Island, Co Galway, wrote that he wished “to draw [the taoiseach’s] attention to the news coverage by RTÉ particularly on television, of the French elections”.

Country Diary

Achill, Ireland, Travel

Country Diary from The Guardian with a nice piece on Achill.

North we went to spend a few days on Achill Island (it is joined to the mainland). We had Slievemore Mountain behind us and sat facing the great Minaun Cliffs which rise from the sea, sheer in places and angled backwards in others. Such soft brown where heather grows, deepening almost to black where turf (peat) is visible. The cliff slabs change in colour from dark violet to black as the sun slants on their adamantine surfaces. The smell of turf burning fills the air with its acrid, not unpleasant scent.

Saving Turf

Achill, Ireland

I went back to my childhood today spending it, spreading turf. It is probably about 20 years since I have done this type of work that I did every summer as a kid. It’s pretty monotonous spreading the turf (or peat) so that it can dry in the air and the sunshine before being brought back to the house for the winter. Of course, harvesting turf is done a lot less these days in Celtic Tiger Ireland but it was nice in a nostalgic sort of way. It will be a world away from my new job in Germany next week.