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| The tower in a graveyard in Valentia Island |
So, what is the upshot of my trip to Kerry? Will I be taking my class there? The short answer, is, No. It is too far. And the inability to depend on the weather as well is a huge factor. So, instead, we will content ourselves with an exploration of the Ards peninsula, which was one of the most important centres of monastic activity, and the Causeway Coast, which has one of the most beautiful and geologically interesting structures on the island, and finally, the Mourne mountains which are quite incredible. So, that will be our school outings from here on in. The Ards Peninsula, the Mournes and the Causeway Coast.
But here is the last look at the rest of the trip.
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| View from a gap in the trees of the North of Valentia Island |
Valentia island is an incredibly twee looking place. The thing about Kerry is that it is filled with places which are really well looked after. Where Donegal has this rough and ready feel to it, quite a mess in some parts, say if you travel through from Derry to Malin Head for instance, well i don't know, maybe its different now, but certainly when I did it, it was really neglected and very run down. And not run down as in atmospheric ruins, but run down as in decay and dereliction. It just makes the place feel really depressed. I know Donegal is not as rich as Kerry, and that might be it... it seems mean because I LOVE Donegal, but when you see Kerry really killing it - the Irish tweeness, you just wonder, how come only Kerry has managed to get round to it?
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| Long empty roads and a sunset |
The other thing about Valentia Island is that it is full of really interesting history. In fact, Kerry is full of really interesting history. Passing through places like Killarney made you very aware how much the British must have had an influence here - and the grey forbidding stone churches from the late 19th and early 20th century, reminded you of the influence of the Catholic Church on the place. Ireland seems like a fairy tale place now, but only forty years ago, it was in the pits of despair. The Troubles were at their height and the Irish economy was in the bin. Ireland was an insanely conservative society. The Church had a say about everything. Priests were treated like gods. The scale of sexual abuse and misogyny was off the charts. So this gorgeous landscape hides a very very dark past.
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| Lighthouse built by the English |
People forget that Ireland was under colonial rule for almost 700 years, some would say that it still is. The mess which Brexit has created here has not been fully realised. And the DUP and Sinn Fein are so caught up in their own miseries that everything else has been tossed out of the window. People have very short memories and an even smaller sense of accountability. They don't really care that their negligence and petty point scoring is going to result in the collapse of power sharing. I wonder if they think that Northern Ireland will never return to the nightmare which once was the wars of the 1970s. If there is one thing I have learnt from history, everything is possible.
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| The silences in between |
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| Sunset on the West Coast |
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| A fairytale house - Oisin said it should have a Cath Kidston logo on it |
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| Too beautiful |
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| Portmagee |
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| The Ring of Kerry |
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| Killarney National Park |
There seems to be lots of traffic on the road outside for some reason. I wonder if it is because the road outside has been sealed off. About a month ago, they sealed off every exit from our road and then proceeded to plant a massive roadwork outside the only exit we had left. The jam was so bad it took us 45 minutes to get out of the place.
Right, time to start with the class prep, again. I was listening to the lecture on Earth Evolution by Steiner. It involves the hierarchies. It is completely bonkers. Steiner says that only humans could choose, but it would also appear that hierarchies could also choose. They could choose to go along with God's plan for the universe. I think that the most I listen to Steiner's story the more I think it is an allegory. It is as good as any other story I have heard about how the universe came into existence, and I include what passes as science these days. The truth is that the mathematicians and astronomers don't know much more than Steiner about how the world was created. They are all educated guesses. What appeals to me is the ethic implicit in the idea that we are the tenth hierarchy and that when we are all able to choose wisely, we will experience freedom. In many ways that doesn't even bring in the endgame. After all my inquiry into the way in which we construct narrative for ourselves, my conclusion thus far is that nothing has one truth. The only thing we know is that human beings are compulsive storytellers. We need a reason to do things, as the storytelling shows, or we will end up being complete dicks. We also have a spirituality - or a spiritual nature. We cannot deny that. It has to do with a longing to know, a looking up, a wish to feel connected. In many ways it is what animals have with each other, but with an awakened consciousness. We have eaten from the Tree of Knowledge, and that is our blessing and our curse.
Right, time to get work in.
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