BANANAS
‘Have you any bananas?’ I asked casually, ‘You won’t find them out this far west boy’, said the shopkeeper, looking at me square in the eye with the sort of visual underline normally reserved for an invitation to a cage fight with Rottweilers. Although it happened many years ago, the experience stuck with me, not just for the strange mix of corner shop masquerading as a front for the headquarters of UFC meets Crufts but also for the mindset of a generation who were here long before surfers and windsurfers chased along their shores. There are two groups of people who live here, those from the area and those that have moved here. Farmers and fishermen mix with artists and surfers escaping to the west. Traditionally employment here has been ‘off the land or sea’, tough acres to farm and rough waters to sail breed character and at times can conflict with visitors ignorant to the hardships and commitment it takes to live here. ‘Surfers, slow the ^&%$ down’, laughed my friend as he recounted the sign at the side of the road. You drive carefully here for many reasons. While the sheer range of uncharted breaks begs exploration, you have to be mindful where you roam to respect long held land ownership and not ignite the ire of farmers who don’t want biocontamination of their fields from outsiders and given Ireland’s history of ‘land grabbing’, are robustly defendant of their lot. Good manners and a slow pace however will take you far and take the time to speak with locals and you will learn what has drawn expats to live here.
GO WEST
Post brexit the Irish Times recently published a series of interviews with British people who have settled in Ireland’s western fringe. The anecdotes painted a heart warming picture. One man recounted how after his wife’s untimely death, he went to the local bank to close his wife’s account and the teller came round the side of the counter to give him a hug on hearing the news. When he went back to England, to a place he had banked with for over 40 years to do the same account closure, they barely looked him in the eye. Another expat recalled seeing a grocery van pull up at the side of a road, lift a stone, take money and leave a bag of groceries. He took that as a sign he had come to the ‘right’ place. Warm welcomes are more common than swift rebukes here. In the cold war paranoia of the 70’s some people moved to Ireland on the basis that in the event of a nuclear holocaust it was far enough to the west to escape the radioactive fallout. These days bohemians are drawn by inspiring land and seascapes, a quiet life to create amongst and a culture of love of the arts that counts one of the world’s great wordsmiths, William Butler Yeats, amongst its family.
FREE ECONOMY
On our way to the beach we pass a newly opened ‘foodie’ café. In the boom celtic tiger years the west of Ireland felt the effect in a rise in house prices from holiday home investment but outside the reach of locals who felt justifiably disgruntled at being priced out of their own homelands. Ultimately unsustainable, now, post crash, new businesses and residents are more focussed on long term lifestyle gains rather than short-term gross profit. Ireland’s highest profile surfer, Fergal Smith, recently entered politics campaigning for the green party and advocating community based farms and local economic ventures. It feels fitting as we pull up to our first surf stop that we are here to enjoy a resource that can’t be taxed or economically crashed but will provide me with sublime pleasure beyond monetary means. Kind of like chocolate only calorie and cost free.