Rockall
Posted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 7:49 pm
Big news from Oileáin.
This is the biggest recent new inclusion in “the book”.
The island I thought I’d never get, would never get to, will never see, will never land on. Well it just plain landed on me, on my lap anyway.
I am proud of this one.
AND it wasn’t Carraher on his way home from Australia (yes, the bad news is HE’s back). I am reliably informed he travelled counter-clockwise and was never even near the North Atlantic. Nor did he hit the target on that not-spoken-of rest day in the Faeroes last summer, though 300 miles out and the same back, all before dark, really was of itself some achievement ?
Thanks GEO, our very own Kevin O’Sullivan (as some know him), founder member and first chairman of ISKA.
Apparently GEO has abandoned the kayaking,, or nearly so, apparently for yachting, well known to be a useless occupation, at least by comparison. But “every cloud” and all that. Our loss is our gain, in this regard anyway.
The provisional version is printed up in MSWord, but I am having difficulties translating it to HTML, so it isn’t on the web just yet. Days, not weeks, I promise. Watch out on www.oileain.org, linked from this BB.
It’ll be worth it, promise.
DWalsh
PS What I didn’t say in the text is that as a young(er) man I knew Sean D. Dublin Bay Rockall Loftus. He was city councillor in Dublin, a keen supporter of Dublin Bay, and a colleague and firm friend of my brother Rory. When he changed his name the second time to include this mighty rock, he announced his intention to land, but his wife wouldn’t let him go unless he had a competent rock climber along. In my day, as they say, I was that climber. We hired the boat out of Burtonport and waited. And waited. Whenever it looked good the trawler would be somewhere else. It was one of those summers and the trip never happened. Then, if memory serves, he was elected a TD and the subject never came up again, that I know of anyway. He is one of the many people asked to test and approve the text of an obviously controversial inclusion in Oileáin. Our standards are rising and these days we like to get it right !
This is the biggest recent new inclusion in “the book”.
The island I thought I’d never get, would never get to, will never see, will never land on. Well it just plain landed on me, on my lap anyway.
I am proud of this one.
AND it wasn’t Carraher on his way home from Australia (yes, the bad news is HE’s back). I am reliably informed he travelled counter-clockwise and was never even near the North Atlantic. Nor did he hit the target on that not-spoken-of rest day in the Faeroes last summer, though 300 miles out and the same back, all before dark, really was of itself some achievement ?
Thanks GEO, our very own Kevin O’Sullivan (as some know him), founder member and first chairman of ISKA.
Apparently GEO has abandoned the kayaking,, or nearly so, apparently for yachting, well known to be a useless occupation, at least by comparison. But “every cloud” and all that. Our loss is our gain, in this regard anyway.
The provisional version is printed up in MSWord, but I am having difficulties translating it to HTML, so it isn’t on the web just yet. Days, not weeks, I promise. Watch out on www.oileain.org, linked from this BB.
It’ll be worth it, promise.
DWalsh
PS What I didn’t say in the text is that as a young(er) man I knew Sean D. Dublin Bay Rockall Loftus. He was city councillor in Dublin, a keen supporter of Dublin Bay, and a colleague and firm friend of my brother Rory. When he changed his name the second time to include this mighty rock, he announced his intention to land, but his wife wouldn’t let him go unless he had a competent rock climber along. In my day, as they say, I was that climber. We hired the boat out of Burtonport and waited. And waited. Whenever it looked good the trawler would be somewhere else. It was one of those summers and the trip never happened. Then, if memory serves, he was elected a TD and the subject never came up again, that I know of anyway. He is one of the many people asked to test and approve the text of an obviously controversial inclusion in Oileáin. Our standards are rising and these days we like to get it right !