Hangin' n InishMorei

I have just returned to Galway from spending the previous day & night on InishMore, the largest of three islands at the mouth of Galway Bay. I starting to get a little lazy or possibly wiser, I choose not to tour the island on bicycle and thus I took a tour van to get a view of the island. The reason this was wise is because the temperature was right at freezing and the wind was blowing @ 30-40 kmh (20-25 mph), thus the windchill was significantly cooler than it had been, but no worries the van was a great wind block.

As with all the other sights I have seen this week, the island is covered with those crazy rock walls; used to provide property boundaries, wind breaks, grazing areas, etc. The main stop of the afternoon was at one of the islands four historical sites that would have been used in ceremonies for the inhabitants, built about 3000 years ago. With it's semi-circle construction open to the west and high on the cliffs, it would provide for a breath-taking views and sunsets.

On the tour with me I met a wonderful couple that were on holiday from the Belfast area, of course I do not remember their names as I did not right them down last night (but they are going to post comments on my blog, so then I will be able to put names to them). They were very interested in how I am planning to use the knowledge I gain while I am at Findhorn, it's a really good question and one that time will help answer.

The night spent at the Kilronan Hostel was nice and quiet compared to Kinlay House in Galway. Marco, the house host, fixed a great pasta dinner and shared it with several of us staying at the hostel, Suzanne & Raymond. Suzanne was there for two weeks teaching an craft/arts class at the secondary school and Raymond was on a short holiday down from Derry where he works for Waterford Crystal. The conversation was focused on the difficult economic times that is up on us world wide, in Ireland they have been "officially" in recession for more than a year and have been in difficult economic times for several years, both Northern Ireland & the Republic. The conclusion at the end of the night, is that we have a long row to hoe, and we need to better understand the things we need and not confuse things we want with the things we need.
Raymond mentioned economic studies that have dealt with making sure communities have the things they need and how this makes for a healthy community, some things I need to research more.


View Larger Map

InnishMor