MEMORIES OF DAYS IN KERRY
It was like a day in mid-summer as I walked along a quiet country road near Smerwick Harbour in County Kerry recently, bees were out foraging in the luxuriant growth of Fuschias and high overhead in the clear, blue sky a lark was singing his heart out. During the afternoon it got so warm that the flowers on the Furze bushes were cracking.
Off in the far distance, under the shadow of Mount Eagle, a plume of blue smoke from a turf fire rose, spiralling into the sky and out to sea I could see Ballydavid Head and the outline of The Three Sisters. On my way down to the beautiful strand near here I went once more to visit the Oratory of Gallarus to see the tiny church, built in a kind of bee-hive shape, which is believed to date back to the 8th Century. It is so perfectly built, of stones fitted together so well, that despite being exposed to the most extreme weather, that not a drop of rain has got in for over a thousand years.
While I was there I got a great sense of peace and timelessness, lost in thinking of the monks who once prayed there, but soon it was time to move on down to the Strand. In 1579, this was the scene for an invasion of Spaniards, accompanied by a Papal Nuncio, they built a fort on a rocky ledge projecting into Smerwick Harbour and called it Fortdel Oro, it came to be called in Irish Dun-an-Oir, in 1580, a force of Italians entrenched there. The following year the forces of Lord Grey stormed the Fort and slaughtered all the defenders except one.
Later in the afternoon I stood looking down at Brandon Creek, from where Saint Brendan, with his 14 monks set sail in search of Hy-Brasil. In his retreat, set high in the mountains, Brendan had a vision of an island somewhere to the West, and in a tiny specially built currach, he set off to find it. There are many stories and legends about his voyages, and these are recorded in two 10th century manuscripts, ‘ The Life of Saint Brendan’ and ‘ The Voyage of Saint Brendan’. Brendan spent seven years travelling around the seas, and visited islands which he called the Island of Sheep and the Paradise of Birds, these are now identified as probably being the islands of Streymoy and Vagar in the Faroe Islands.
He finally made a landfall on what came to be called The Land of Promise, some researchers believe that this was in fact the West coast of America, and the manuscripts reveal that Brendan had a great knowledge about the geography of the Atlantic Ocean, and this was hundreds of years before Columbus. Today at Brandon Creek, there is a statue of Saint Brendan in his little boat, setting off on his voyage of discovery, underneath it the waves crash onto the rocks, one can only wonder at the faith and bravery of the saint and his monks who braved the perils of an uncharted sea all those centuries ago. He is now known as Saint Brendan the Navigator and his Feast Day is celebrated on May 16th.
Having enough of history for one day, I then went to Coomenoole Bay near the village of Dunquin, where part of the film ‘Ryans Daughter’ was shot in 1969. It was here that David Lean filmed some of the storm scene where rifles are landed from a trawler, but Lean, ever the perfectionist wasn’t satisfied with the Kerry storms, so most of the storm was shot off the coast of County Clare, I then headed for the Blasket Heritage Centre, across the road from which is a narrow, winding road which leads up to where the village of Kirrary was specially built for ‘Ryan’s Daughter’. This involves leaving the road, through a gate and on what remains of the road into the village, alas today no trace remains of the cobbled street where John Mills, as Michael, the deformed, deaf mute walked, being taunted and mocked by the girls of the village, until he is rescued by Trevor Howard as the priest.
Now the only thing to be seen there are sheep, but it is well worth the steep walk up there to look out to sea and see the Blaskets and off in the far distance the distinctive shape of The Skelligs. On our last day in Kerry, I stopped off at Inch Beach, the place where Rosy Ryan lost her bonnet in ‘Ryan’s Daughter’, there I met some members of the Dublin Gliding Club. They put on a magnificent show, it was wonderful to see the gliders flying high above the mountains at Camp, like great, silent circling birds. We then headed for home, but hopefully it won’t be long before we are back in Kerry again.