Joe visits Errismore in Connemara, Co. Galway, a place where the people have ‘one foot in the tide’, as the local saying goes. This was part of the former territory of the seafaring O’Flaherty clan, and archaeologist and local historian Michael Gibbons takes Joe to the ruins of the castle overlooking the sea at Bunabhainn where Donal O’Flaherty lived with his wife, Grace O’Malley. She is perhaps better known as Granuaile, ‘the Pirate Queen’, but Michael disputes the idea that she was a pirate at all, as he explains to Joe.
Staying on the shore, Joe meets a man who is a perfect example of having ‘one foot in the tide’. Padraic Kearns still lives in the house he grew up in, which is only separated from the tide by a low wall. Padraic chats to Joe about his family’s intimate, and mostly harmonious relationship with the sea, and how the produce the tide left behind helped feed a family of 7, and fend off colds and flu. He also explains how the tide serves as nature’s calendar.
Errismore’s proximity to the Atlantic Ocean was the main reason that Guglielmo Marconi chose it for the location of the first ever Transatlantic Wireless Station. The flat land of Derrygimlagh bog provided the ideal site, and historian Kathleen Villiers-Tuthill chats to Joe about the impact the station and its staff had upon the local community. The station wasn’t the only world first that occurred on this site – Kathleen explains how it was also the place where Alcock and Brown landed after completing the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic in 1919.
Besides these auspicious historical developments, another thing Connemara is famed for is its ponies. Christy King, a former breeder of Connemara ponies, reminisces with Joe about riding bareback as a boy and about his brother Paddy, a champion breeder of some renown, whose funeral included a cortege of ponies and riders. Someone who is carrying on the tradition of breeding Connemara ponies today is Padraic Heanue, and he gives Joe a tour of his stables, and introduces him to some of his pedigree ponies. He tells Joe about the contingent of horse breeders who recently paid him a visit, looking to breed Connemara ponies in perhaps the unlikeliest of places – South Korea!
Something else that Connemara is well-known for is its fishing industry, which has always been the lifeblood of the economy here, and Joe takes a look at how it has changed over the years. He visits Bunowen Pier where he takes a tour of Connemara Smokehouse, courtesy of its owner, Graham Roberts, who talks Joe through the process of making his artisanal ‘cold smoked’ salmon. Joe then spends some time with local fisherman, Martin O’Malley, who chats about his memories of growing up within the fishing community and about the crawfish and lobster industries of the past in Connemara
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47 mins
47 mins