The Wild West of Ireland

by Brendan Murphy (Australia)

Making a local connection Ireland

The ‘Wild’ West of Ireland One Irish summer, we of an ancient Murphy clan were living in England for a while, and had decided on packing up the van and driving over the Irish Sea (via a ship of course) to catch up with some long lost Irish cousins, out in the west coast of the beautiful Emerald Isle in County Mayo. It was quite a drive, especially with two toddlers in the back, but we plodded on determinedly, through the great capital of Dublin and across the river Liffy heading forever west, until I could not stand it anymore, and stopped in Longford for my first pint of the creamy luxurious Guinness. “Aah, necter of the Gods, just one more pint me dear”, I whispered to my wife (with a glazed look of love in my eye not entirely focused on my beloved) and I’ll even travel to the moon!”. “You mean I’m driving the rest of the way,” she replied, still thankfully on planet Earth! Fueled by the great Irish Stout we arrived in the west of Ireland to the town of Claremorris to stay with my cousins who lived on a farm. Mayo was as we expected, beautiful, rugged and well, rather wild, really. It was not long until we were returning to our homeland of Perth, on the Wild West of Australia, so we were trying to trace our family tree and experience the Wild West of Ireland too! Nearby, Irelands most famous holy mountain ‘Croagh Patrick’ towered over the town of Westport and the magnificent Clew Bay with its numerous islands opening out below it. The Irish are renowned for their hospitality and it is true, it was second to none, we were soon making all sorts of local connections with it seemed every one of their neighbours and indeed the village! The food was wholesome, simple but delicious. As a chef I became a little wild myself with appreciation of the purely organic real Wild Salmon (which Mayo is renowned for) and Mussels I cooked on an ancient peat fired stove in their cottage! What a challenge that was, but the taste of the salmon was well worth it. And as for dessert, what else but a freshly baked Guinness cake which went down a treat with Irish Coffee- ‘to be sure’! And even my Aunty showed me how to bake a traditional Soda Bread. Yum! We were also itching to see Westport and Galway Bay. Firstly, we went with a whole ‘Mayo tribe’ of Locals and cousins to treat ourselves to the beautiful traditional ‘Claddagh’ Rings in Westport. We still wear them proudly, but to buy one for each other then, seemed to stir an ancient Celtic connection flowing through our veins, not to mention the pride of our new friends and cousins. It was as though we were now part of all their families! Later, just us Murphy’s did the touristy bit and sped around on an open top bus for a great tour of the city of Galway. However, my one lasting memory of beautiful Galway Bay is not as one would expect, as instead of ‘watching the sun go down on Galway Bay’ as the famous song goes, I ended up trapped in the local loo instead! This rather un-Irish modern toilet on the promenade had an electronic door, a present from Europe no doubt because you had to pay to go in! Having no change on me, I took the opportunity to jump in before the door closed when it became vacant. Relief was imminent until suddenly, motors burst into life and an electronic spray gun appeared as if by magic (or was that a Leprechaun holding on to the end?) and proceeded to spray the loo including me with a large dose of disinfectant. Of course, the door would not open and I was trapped! I had to wait until the cleaning job was over and the door opened automatically to reveal an extremely embarrassed (but very clean!) Murphy! Perhaps the song should now go: “If you ever go across the sea to Ireland beware of the loo on Galway Bay!”