Turn that off….now!….. I was listening to ‘Rio’ - by Duran Duran on headphones after lights out when, ‘Fat Harry’, came into the dorm. You didn’t mess with Mr Millar, great History teacher, a favourite at Armagh Royal, tough but fair. Still, this didn’t seem fair at all, headphones were allowed, he’d picked on me that night. Next morning at breakfast I realised he’d been kind, making sure I didn’t hear the news on the radio - dad had been in a car crash out west, near Ballina, en route to our Achill house.…

Dugort, Achill Island  |  Ireland

I’ve always thought of misty, shadowy West of Ireland weather as gloomy or mysterious. It wasn’t until I read CS Lewis on the difference between half light (Nordic) & full light (Mediterranean) beauty that I broadened my perspective. He compares a northern landscape & light to water colours, bright southern light to oil paintings. One vivid & exuberant, the other subtle & nuanced. Ambivalent.

Minaun cliffs and Keel surf, Achill, Co Mayo. © 2019 Sarah Whitcroft

Different…

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