ben bulben
as you walk out the back door of the epping house and look to the horizon, you will see green green grass, fence lines and the flat top mountain they call ben bulben (ben = mountain). just beyond that is the west coast (irish/atlantic ocean) where rick's wife joan grew up with her six brothers and sisters. their father's family lived and fished on the small island of inishmurray*, and fishing and the ocean remains to be a large part of the family's livelihood and recreation. joan's youngest brother philip lives only 50 yards from the house they grew up in; he raises five children and and works for his sister who runs a lobster and crab distribution company. three to four times weekly phillip visits many west coast fishing villages to buy lobster and crab from the local fishermen. upon return phillip deposits the crustaceans into a large saltwater pond and soon after they are picked up by french distributers and taken to be sold throughout france and spain. the irish lobster is sold for twice the amount of american and is said to have a sweeter more delicate taste (which we confirmed later).
yesterday we went out with philip on his county mayo route - an opportunity most visitors don't experience.
the peat bogs: the irish harvest peat to fuel fire
we packed in three across in philip's refrigerated van and started south west, winding through small towns from county sligo to county mayo. houses became scarce, the green fields gave way to grayish brown peat bogs, and signs protesting shell popped up like miniature american billboards on the interstate. ireland recently found loads of oil just off the shore of county mayo and nearly gave it away to shell in a recent corrupt political deal. some of the locals went to work for shell and others protested angrily thus creating a fraction and stress within the surrounding communities. shell has already started laying pipeline, importing tech savvy employees (no long employing the locals) and the irish can't hardly to a thing to stop it. as phillip pointed out, with the aid of the best lawyers around the world shell's contract with ireland is surely glued shut. the fisherman are wary of busting pipes (as we saw last year with BP) and some folks in the greater communities fear the close proximity of pipe laying to their houses and livelihood. in porturlin, our first stop, the air was thick with unresolved disagreement between fishermen; some hardly uttered a word to each other on the docks.
adrian and a retired fishing boat
county mayo lobster
over the next 8 hours and three stops we heard stories of the hard life of irish lobster and crab fishermen - an occupation that knows well the loss of life taken by the dangerous and unpredictable atlantic seas. phillip told us that the boats will quite commonly travel an upwards of 60 miles out (taking about 10 hours) to set the traps. every year they venture further and further and the boats are rarely adequate for such distances and unforgiving storms. the cliffs of the coast line are tall and sharp and the weather is a cold and wet shade of gray.
we packed in three across in philip's refrigerated van and started south west, winding through small towns from county sligo to county mayo. houses became scarce, the green fields gave way to grayish brown peat bogs, and signs protesting shell popped up like miniature american billboards on the interstate. ireland recently found loads of oil just off the shore of county mayo and nearly gave it away to shell in a recent corrupt political deal. some of the locals went to work for shell and others protested angrily thus creating a fraction and stress within the surrounding communities. shell has already started laying pipeline, importing tech savvy employees (no long employing the locals) and the irish can't hardly to a thing to stop it. as phillip pointed out, with the aid of the best lawyers around the world shell's contract with ireland is surely glued shut. the fisherman are wary of busting pipes (as we saw last year with BP) and some folks in the greater communities fear the close proximity of pipe laying to their houses and livelihood. in porturlin, our first stop, the air was thick with unresolved disagreement between fishermen; some hardly uttered a word to each other on the docks.
over the next 8 hours and three stops we heard stories of the hard life of irish lobster and crab fishermen - an occupation that knows well the loss of life taken by the dangerous and unpredictable atlantic seas. phillip told us that the boats will quite commonly travel an upwards of 60 miles out (taking about 10 hours) to set the traps. every year they venture further and further and the boats are rarely adequate for such distances and unforgiving storms. the cliffs of the coast line are tall and sharp and the weather is a cold and wet shade of gray.
we saw a good portion of the western coastline of ireland including a neolithic farm site (reportedly the first farm in european history) and the site of the french landing in 1789. we learned what 30 kilos of crab and lobster look like in the plastic containers coming off the boats and what 1500 kilos look and smell like in the back of the van! we traveled from ballysadare down to porturlin around killala bay to kilcummin pier to lackan and then back home to ballymote. we also met a few modern irish gypsy families running their horses into the frigid sea to break and train them for racing.
it was a rare chance to spend a day in the life of the irish fishing industry, and tonight we were delighted to taste
the fruits of our adventure: a wonderfully fresh and sweet lobster salad prepared by joan - yumm!
port turlin docks
* INISHMURRAY:
i did a little research to find out more about the island where joan's father grew up:
the island rests just 4 miles off the coast of county sligo, covers 228 acres and today is uninhabited. the population peaked at just over 100 in the 1880s but the last residents moved to the mainland in 1948, when the peat turf (fuel for fire) ran out; with them was joan's father. on the island are the remains of an earlier irish monastic settlement founded by st. molaies in the 6th century. to this day the island preserves a certain mystical presence and has a strong history in religious/spiritual practices; one of which was a curse ritual that many of the islanders practiced and/or fell under…
another fun fact: turns out joan's father was, by birthright, the king of innishmurray!
here's a great website with some interesting pictures and stories: http://inishmurray.com/
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