10 August 2019
One of our guidebooks describes Connemara as breathtakingly beautiful. I suspect that can be said about most of Ireland.
We decided to drive North along the coast to Roundstone, before heading South to Doolin, our final destination for the day. The landscape consists largely of lakes, mountains and bogs, and it is almost unthinkable to think that two of the most influential technological events of the 20th century occurred in this remote part of Ireland.
In 1907, Guglielmo Marconi opened the world’s first permanent Transatlantic Radio station at Derrigimlagh Bog. Marconi figured that there would be no landmass that could interfere with his aerials, and for nine years continued to forward messages across the Atlantic from London and Dublin.
A few years later, at 8h40 am on 15 June 1919, John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown made a rather less than elegant nose-dive into the same Derrigimlagh Bog. They had just completed the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic. It wasn’t an easy flight. At times, they had to fly at no more than 300 feet above the ocean to keep ice from forming on their transmitter. Several times, Brown had to climb out onto the wings to chip away the ice. You can imagine their relief when they saw Marconi’s aerials. But what they didn’t realise, of course, was that the land was not really firm enough to land on, hence the rather unelegant nose-dive into the bog.
Doolin is the quaintest of villages near the famous Cliffs of Moher, Ireland’s most visited natural attraction, and for good reason. Over an eight kilometer stretch, spectacular cliffs rise up to a height of 200 meters over the Atlantic ocean, and whilst we spent the best part of the day driving in rain, the weather lifted sufficiently for us to be able to do some walking along these beautiful cliffs. In the visitors’ centre, they have an exhibition on how the continents formed, and I cannot help wondering where the other side of the cliffs might be. I.e. – if we were to squash the continents back together again, would the Cliffs of Moher fit in quite snugly with the cliffs on the east coast of say Newfoundland?
Dinner was at a lovely bar on the popular Fisher street. You couldn’t possibly get more Irish, if you tried.
Ag am ar bith. At any time, the universe can be showing you a little bit of its exceptional beauty. Always be ready to appreciate it.
