It’s rewarding to be doing research about the environment where many of the residents have such a close relationship with the land (and water). I’ve already lost count of how many times I’ve gotten the question, “So how’s the lough doing?” after people found out I’m doing ecological work here. Just this morning I met a man who both swims in and takes the temperature of the water in the lough every day. Of course, he may be doing this out of personal curiosity, but even that shows an important care and connection many of these residents feel when it comes to their surroundings.
This notion is no more evident than in the fact that something like National Heritage Week even exists, let alone the number and breadth of events that comprise it. Three of the events we attended this past week were a walk around the area surrounding the Lough Hyne Marine Nature Reserve, a guided historical walk around Skibbereen Town, and a talk on Skibbereen during World War I. While I feel I’ve become sufficiently acquainted with the (cold) waters of Lough Hyne, getting to walk around the many, many, many hills of its townlands was both emotionally moving and physically exhausting. Our tour guide/local history extraordinaire/author Terri Kearney showed us various plots of land, which families have lived there, for how long, and how they have all fit—both figuratively and literally, if you look at it from above—into the intricately connected quilt that is this tiny pocket of West Cork.
This notion is no more evident than in the fact that something like National Heritage Week even exists, let alone the number and breadth of events that comprise it. Three of the events we attended this past week were a walk around the area surrounding the Lough Hyne Marine Nature Reserve, a guided historical walk around Skibbereen Town, and a talk on Skibbereen during World War I. While I feel I’ve become sufficiently acquainted with the (cold) waters of Lough Hyne, getting to walk around the many, many, many hills of its townlands was both emotionally moving and physically exhausting. Our tour guide/local history extraordinaire/author Terri Kearney showed us various plots of land, which families have lived there, for how long, and how they have all fit—both figuratively and literally, if you look at it from above—into the intricately connected quilt that is this tiny pocket of West Cork.
Despite rainy, windy, and otherwise generally expected Irish weather conditions, the walk through Skibbereen Town, guided by Philip O’Reagan, was perhaps even more informative and emotionally charged. While the walk around the lands of Lough Hyne showed clear signs of dependence on land and architectural scars left by the Great Famine, the stories of struggle seemed much more raw in the streets of Skibbereen—the heart of perhaps the worst-hit area in all of Ireland. To be walking on the same streets as laborers marching for food and wages, to hear of people purposefully committing crimes just so they could sit in jail and get a meal, to imagine the creaking of the carts that rode through town, carrying the dead of the day—those are the things that give a tiny idea of how intense this tragedy became. However, going to the building that held the first soup kitchen in all of Ireland, and seeing the faces of the locals who happened to be taking the tour, I got a glimpse of the pride and resilience that got so many people through it.
The talk given by local historian William Casey on Skibbereen during World War I gave a different type of insight into this part of Ireland. For being a relatively small town, it has lots of claims to superlatives involving the Great War. It is said (although by the local newspaper the Skibbereen Eagle) that in the years leading up to the war, County Cork provided more recruits per capita than any other in all of the United Kingdom. Something a bit more substantiated yet no less impressive is that Michael Joseph Aloysius Sheehan, a Skibbereen man (or boy, really), became the youngest officer on the Western Front, as a sixteen-year-old 2nd Lieutenant. Further, if you consider the fact that the Lusitania was sunk off the coast of this part of West Cork, there really is a quite a lot this town has to say. The questions at the end of the talk illustrated that Skib’s current residents also have something to say about the war. Many men and women spoke up, recalling war memorials from their childhoods and ancestors who were involved with this or that. Really, they were just sharing memories, adding stitches, and further connecting the people to this land.
Until next time,
Ryan Jiorle
Until next time,
Ryan Jiorle