Outrage at graffiti on the Reeks
A KERRY climbing guide has hit out at “scumbag” vandals who spray-painted rocks in one of Kerry’s top beauty spots and he went quickly to work to remove the offending material.
Piaras Kelly of Kerry Climbing washed off the unwanted message using a wire brush and some good old fashioned elbow grease.
“Incidents like this are few and far between but you’ll always notice the bad egg in a batch. It’s a disgrace,” he said.
This is the second case of graffiti on the Kerry mountains in recent weeks as it first appeared at the iconic Turnpike Rock on the Gap of Dunloe when someone decided it would be a good idea to spray their initials.
Piaras takes groups on trips to the mountain, which he calls his office, and he is immensely proud of the fact we live in such a beautiful county. He also believes that people need to take it upon themselves to clean off graffiti where they see it to avoid it from becoming a more serious problem.
“The ‘F***k Kerry’ is the worst as it’s not just unsightly but also contradictory of the beautiful landscapes that surround it. I think we all need to do something whenever we see stuff like this on the mountain.”
Piaras concluded: “There are scumbags everywhere but if we just turn a blind eye it only becomes a bigger problem. It’s probably worse walking past it as and you would hope that everyone would have the spirit and good will to remove it. The worry is that if it’s ignored it will get added to overtime. A day in the mountain is about leaving no trace, and leave the mountain as you see it.” FOR anyone who has spent 40 years working in a top law firm on Wall Street, spending their retirement as a novelist in Ballinskelligs may not be the most typical arrangement.
But for Tom Cahill, that’s exactly where life has landed him. Originally from upstate New York, the 66-year-old now finds himself spending his days writing at his home of two years in Kerry – all because he made a promise to himself and his great grandparents many years ago.
“Ballinskelligs is the perfect place for a writer. I get up every morning, drink a black cup of coffee and get to work writing. That’s at 6am,” Tom said.
“My great grandparents were born in Ireland. They left for New York in 1880. Every year, my father, grandfather and I would visit their grave. When I was 10-years-old, I knelt in front of their grave, and vowed to live in Ireland one day. When you make a vow to someone, you keep it.
“I don’t care about Wall Street now. I care about Ballinskelligs.”
To many readers Tom’s name may be familiar as a regular contributor to The Kerryman’s letters page and Ballinskelligs is also the perfect place for Tom to write his his six novels and now, his newly published novella, ‘Dear Prisoner’.
So why a novella, this time? “Well, there’s a simple enough reason for it. I know a lot of people tend to read before bed, so I wanted to cater for that by making the chapters short, as a lot of people aim to read a chapter a night, so that is completely doable with a novella”, Tom continued.
“There’s definitely more strategy to writing novellas – they have to contain a lot of information in a shorter space of time.
“All the feedback so far has been very positive, I’m thrilled.”
Always having a flair for writing, Tom spent the majority of his life hoping he would one day get the chance to put pen to paper.
“I spent 40 years working in a law firm on Wall Street. I wouldn’t change a minute of those years. But, the job took up a lot of time. I often thought throughout the years, ‘when will I ever get to write a novel?’
“I think people should remember they can do more than one thing or be more than one thing in their life. Believe me. You can be a corporate lawyer and, one day, become a novelist too.
“I think people should just go and do the things they love and the things they really want to do. I would say to anyone, ‘are you going to wait until you’re 95 to write page one of a book?’”
The book centres around three elderly characters, one in prison; and the other two prisoners of their minds. Tom said the inspiration behind the book originally came from his time working in a church.
“I used to work for a church, as a janitor. What they used to do back then was send paper and pens to the women’s prison in upstate New York to allow the prisoners to write notes to loved ones. We were allowed to include a note to the prisoners ourselves, so I was being a smart arse one day and asked, ‘ why don’t we refer to them as ‘ Dear Prisoner’ and, obviously, that didn’t go down well.
“Other than that, I invented the characters. I hear over 40-year-olds saying all the time that there is nothing that exists in the world for them. And you see older people in books and they’re all in wheelchairs, frothing at the mouth.
“But I wanted to create two characters who actually had lives. Predictable lives, so I wanted to make a story that broke them out of their routine.”
Tom said he has a “whole lot of life and a whole lot of writing left in him” and is already working on another novella.
“I started writing Dear Prisoner four months ago – I’m a fast writer. I treat writing as a job. It’s important to be disciplined. I get up in the morning and I write until I’m done my work.
“I don’t believe in writer’s block. Singers sing, dancers dance, if you think you have writers block, you don’t. You’re just not writing.
“I was a born storyteller and I know that for sure. I have become better with each novel, I wrote my first novel in 2010. I have been waiting my whole life to write. I don’t know why I waited so long, I couldn’t love it anymore.
“I only write happy endings. I don’t know how to write something sad.”
In line with this, Tom is creating his own happy ending for sure.
“I don’t write to make big bucks, I write because I love it. I’m loving what I’m doing and I’m loving where I am.
“I’m 66, with free travel and I don’t ever use it. I live in heaven out here, why would I ever want to leave? I meet local people every week, I write and I live happily. That’s enough.”