Sir, I was standing by the coast road near Dunquin one afternoon recently, gazing out at the Blasket Islands, shrouded in mist. A car pulled up beside me: the driver looked out and said: "Magic, isn't it?"
"Yes," I replied, and added: "Have you read Fiche Bhan ag Fas."
"You must be referring to Muiris O Suilleabhain," the driver said. "Yes. And Tomas O Criomhthain: The Islandman.
And Peig Sayers. "It's the least we can do."
I may be inflicting an injustice on my fellow countrymen, but I can't imagine such an encounter on a country road in England. At all events, as far as I was concerned, it did more for Irish tourism in three minutes than Bord Failte's honest, but pedestrian, efforts over twenty years. - Yours, etc..
Southport,
Merseyside PR9 ORA.