What is the most appealing or emotive or moving or evocative or just your favourite place in Ireland? The poet wrote:
God gave all men all earth to love,
But, since our hearts are small,
Ordained for each one spot should prove
Beloved over all.
That was Kipling, and he chose Sussex by the sea. Last Saturday morning, a few friends who had been listening to the excellent "Bow man Saturday 8.30" programme about the reissue of Reading the Irish Landscape, this time by Frank Mitchell and Michael Ryan, were making a game out of choosing places, which no one in his or her senses could leave out of a list of favourites or illustrious sites. Dun Aengus, all agreed, was quite inescapable. Lucky those who were going to Aran for the first time: the sense of liberation as you move out into the Atlantic and the thrill and even shudder as you peer, as, if hypnotised, over the foam below. The size and expertise of the building, the many questions it raises. There are other splendid forts along the coast. This is the one.
The quieter waters: others would not let Clonmacnoise pass unrecorded. One person recanted and said he was more impressed by the Skelligs than by Dun Aengus. From the approach by sea, with gannets diving around them; the long ascent to the monastery, the beehive huts, the main questions raised how did they live? But above all, just the bleak beauty. Fair Head in Antrim, ventured another. Rathlin below you; to your right the Mull of Kintyre and, according to weather, miles and miles of Scotland. Connemara was mentioned by all, but there was no agreement as to one favourite.
Beaches by the score, mountains, rivers and lakes. In short, all of them just wanted to be in Connemara. Killarney and its surrounds gave the same problem. Nobody voted for the Ladies View, but the lakes themselves with the towering mountains took a large part in all hearts. Mac Art's Fort standing over Belfast, said one. Dublin has nothing to compare.
The Burren. Just as everyone is against sin, everyone is for the Burren. Wicklow. Most of it. As to the Boyne Valley with Knowth, Dowth and Newgrange. Look: buy this wonderful book (£18.99, Town House and Country House) and make up your own mind and your own list. And marvel at the illustrations.