Counting our blessings

                                                                                                      “The ocean stirs the heart,
                                                                                                      Inspires the imagination,
                                                                                                      And brings eternal joy to the soul “

The beautiful, rugged landscape around Carrowkeel on Mulroy Bay in County Donegal is very inspiring and picturesque, especially when the weather is good. But during wintertime, when this area is exposed to the ferocious gales and the pounding waves of the North Atlantic, the atmosphere and vista drastically change to survival mode. Most of those small holdings with cottages are still inhabited today, however now they have electricity/gas, installed running water, thermal insulation/double glazing and central heating. Also, some have a small SUV parked outside, for transportation. Some of those homes are lived in all year round & some are used as holiday homes for city people.

So, let’s go back in time a little to say 80 or 100 years ago, and we see a totally different story. Before the arrival of electricity and the mod cons, heat for the entire house was provided by one source – an open fire of turf. Each sod had to be cut and harvested by hand. That same open fire also provided the heat for cooking in cast iron pots, hung over the burning turf. Irish cottage food is almost always grown or reared, like pigs, sheep, cattle, chickens or ducks. Almost all vegetables were home grown, mainly potatoes, turnip, carrots, parsnips lettuce, onions and beetroot, with mushrooms and all fruit/berries foraged wild. All breads and cakes were home made on the same open fire. The open fire was always situated in the centre of the house, usually in the kitchen, which was also the living area. Most floors in these cottages were usually hand cut heavy flagstones and later bare cement was used. The toilet facility was a purpose build shed outside. Transportation was a donkey/cart or a horse and cart or later a bicycle. And then we have to consider finding fodder on this fairly baron land to feed the livestock attached to the smallholding.
Imagine the pure hardship of trying to survive here through a long winter, and you get some idea why so many Irish people emigrated to England, America, Canada, and Australia. Some were lucky and got to return home eventually, while others never again, caught a north Atlantic wind or the smell of a turf fire. Ireland has developed into a fairly affluent economy with Irish people making their mark and taking their place alongside all the nations of the world. Coming from a place of oppression, hardship and even starvation, the transformation of Ireland and the Irish is truly phenomenal.

So, looking at a photograph of the Irish landscape now, it’s worth remembering the more we look, the more information we see and together with a little imagination, we begin to feel some of the history and culture that forms the visual artistic essence of the image. When we experience that sort of emotion, we are experiencing our real culture and that’s where we find our blessings. As a wise man once said:

                                                                       “Reflect upon your present blessings,
                                                                       Of which every man has plenty.
                                                                       Not on your past misfortunes,
                                                                       Of which all men have some.”
                                                                                                                   Charles Dickens


                                                                                                                                                                   O’Doule March 2022