One of the experiences I will never forget, he said, was a visit to the Skelligs, off the Kerry coast with a film team under Louis Marcus. Skellig or Skellig Mhicil we were to land on. Before we got there, we were surrounded by all sorts of sea birds. The most remarkable, of course, the gannet, which breeds on the little Skellig. It was white with them, for it was breeding time. How many pairs? Hundreds at least, maybe a thousand and more. Skellig Mhicil reminds us that the cult of St Michael was known elsewhere - Mont St Michel in Brittany and St Michael's Mount in Cornwall. Anyway, we set off from Valentia Island and after about an hour-and-a-half were at the Skelligs. All the time we were surrounded by diving gannets. They descended from a height, wings folded, and entered the water like a spear, with only a little splash, to come up with a fish in the mouth on most occasions. Birds and rocks to the right and left, birds and rocks all around. What a place for monks to settle in.
We climbed up to the collection of beehive huts or, as Killanin and Duignan put it in the remarkable, detailed Shell Guide to Ireland, a mighty tome, in fact: "dry-built corbel-roofed stone huts, a small oratory of the Gallarus (Ballyferriter type), the remains of St Michael's church and the cemetery". How did the monks live? Hardly any soil. But maybe they made it with seaweed like the Aran islanders. There were sea-birds' eggs to eat, and the birds themselves. Fish, of course. The views are such as to inhibit speech. The dedication of these monks is unimaginable in today's world. It mustn't have been easy if they had to get to the mainland. We ourselves were quickly and urgently called down to the waiting boat, because the sea was getting difficult and we mightn't make it that night if we didn't go at once. The odd symmetry of the spear-headed rocks of both islands. The cry of the seabirds and the contemplation of what life must have been like over a thousand years ago remains after 25 years. It was raided by Vikings in 823. (What plunder could they get?) And we are told the settlement disappears from history after 1044. And the words of the Psalmist must have rung true to the monks: "If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and they right hand shall hold me." Y