Ciúnas agus Ceol – music of the sea

We’re just back from Árann, the wild and wonderful Aran Islands. It’s hard to describe the feeling but I think the Irish poet Liam Ó Flaithearta expresses it best. (There’s a bit of a translation down below)

Na Blátha Craige

A dúirt mé leis na blátha:
“Nach suarach an áit a fuair sibh
le bheith ag déanamh aeir
teannta suas anseo le bruach na h-aille,
gan fúibh ach an chloch ghlas
agus salachar na n-éan,
áit bhradach, lán le ceo
agus farraige chaite.
Ní scairteann grian anseo
ó Luan go Satharn
le gliondar a chur oraibh.”
A dúirt na blátha craige:
“Is cuma linn, a stór,
Táimid faoi dhraíocht
ag ceol na farraige.”

Basically, he says to the Sea pinks: Isn’t it a miserable place you ended up, stuck on the side of a cliff, with the bird droppings and all that shit – but the Sea pinks reply: No, not at all, we don’t mind, we are living under the spell of the music of the sea…

We went to Dún Dúchathair in the south east of Inis Mór. It’s much quieter here, in comparison with the fort of Dún Aonghasa. We only met one person, an Indian with an umbrella. When he left, we were completely alone with the mist and the seagulls and the sounds of the ocean.