“Come perch upon the barrel’s edge
And slug the porter down,
We’ll swap tales of the tinker men,
With women lean and brown,
Who sing the roads when old King Puck
Reigns in Killorglin town.”



Sigerson Clifford 1955

“The jutting quays were a hive of activity. Already some of the boats were away and were swinging widely into the current of the river. The sun was heading for the Aran Islands and somebody had touched a pink brush to the clouds on the horizon. The bulk of the town on the other side of the river was alive with the winking diamonds of the dying sun on the window panes, and the cold grey stone of the buildings was mellowed and more beautiful. Even the towering bulk of the artificial manure factory looked blackly beautiful in the rays of the setting sun. The seagull’s feathers seemed to be magically touched with the exotic plumage of the tropics, and the daring terns were white blurs diving into the smooth waters”

Walter Macken (1915 – 1967) – ‘Rain on the Wind’

I am Kerry


I am Kerry like my mother before me,
And my mother's mother and her man.
Now I sit on an office stool remembering,
And the memory of them like a fan
Soothes the embers into flame.
I am Kerry and proud of my name.

My heart is looped around the rutted hills,
That shoulder the stars out of the sky,
And about the wasp-yellow fields,
And the strands where kelp-streamers lie;
Where, soft as lovers' Gaelic, the rain falls,
Sweeping into silver the lacy mountain walls.

My grandfather tended the turf fire,
And, leaning backward into legend,spoke,
Of doings old before quills inked history.
I saw dark heroes fighting in the smoke,
Diarmuid dead inside his Iveragh cave,
And Deirdrie caoining[keening] upon Naoise's grave.

I see the wise face now with its hundred wrinkles,
And every wrinkle held a thousand tales,
Of Finn and Oscar and Conawn Maol,
And sea-proud Niall whose conquering sails,
Raiding France for slaves and wine,
Brought Patrick to mind Milchu's swine.

I should have put a noose about the throat of time,
And choked the passing of the hob-nailed years,
And stayed young always, shouting in the hills,
Where life held only fairy fears,
When I was young my feet were bare,
But I drove cattle to the fair.

'Twas thus I lived, skin to skin with the earth,
Elbowed by the hills, drenched by the billows,
Watching the wild geese making black wedges,
By Skelligs far west and Annascaul of the willows.
Their voices came on every little wind,
Whispering across the half-door of the mind,
For always I am Kerry...
Sigerson Clifford

“In 1983, the Casey family organised a family reunion in Sneem. While all seven brothers were alive at the time, only five were able to make the trip. Then in their 70s, the brothers climbed once again into the same four-oar boat they used to win the championships in 1930, '31 and '32. Although they had not rowed together in 50 years, the same unity and natural grace remained undimmed with the passing of time. “
Irish Independent

“Both parents worked for the Vanderbilt family at their summer estate in Newport, Rhode Island, during their younger days. Mike Casey oversaw the employment and operation of the extensive fleet of racing sculls maintained by the millionaire family, particularly during the Newport Regatta each summer.

``I told Mr Vanderbilt if he'd pay passage for a gang of oarsmen from Sneem to come over, we'd beat all around us,'' Mike once recalled. Cornelius Venderbilt duly obliged and The Hibernians, as they were christened, won every event they entered for three years”
Irish Independent

My fire is extinct,
And my forge is decayed,
By the side of the bench
My old vice it is laid.  

My anvil and hammer
Lie gathering dust,
My powerful bellows,
have lost all their thrust  

My coal is now spent
My irons all gone,
My last nail’s been driven,
And my day’s work done.

Knightstown,Valentia Island

“It is the building sector that feels the financial impacts of knotweed the most with removal costs from development sites being very expensive. One 30mx30m site in Wales cost developers an extra £52,785 to deal with the removal of knotweed. The worst case scenario for a 1m2 patch of knotweed on a development site has been estimated to be up to £54,000”
CABI

Killarney