HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1961-02-16, Page 2.M1 Author Visits:
The Aran islands
Synge's first visit in 1898 last-
ed from May 10th to June 26th,
with two weeks spent on the
main island and four on the mid-
dle island. He returned in the
four succeeding summers and
spent altogether a' little more
than four and a half months in
the islands.His book The Aran
Islands is based on' his first four
visits: , ,
He saw, on Aran a life that had
all but disappeared from the rest
cf Ireland, The women all. dress-
ed in red flannel skirts and plaid
shawls, so lurid against the grey
background of limestone shelf
and sandy shore, the men in blue
turtleneck sweaters, homespun
trousers and vests, grey as the
rocks, and wearing the kind c"f
cowhide moccasin called a pans-
pootie, ideal for walking oat -
footed over the rocks or for row-
ing a curragh, the traditional
canoe of the west of Ireland
made of tarred canvas and laths.
The islands are limestone shelf,
sloping gradually from sea level
on the eastern side upwards to
precipitous cliffs on the western
side, which in some places tower
three hundred feet above the
seas. On the brink of the highest
of these cliffs on Inishmore is
Dun Aengus, an ancient stone
fort of gigantic proportions chap-.
ed like a horseshoe and surroun-
ded by three rings of outer forti-
fications which impede the steps
of the visitor who toils up the
hill as they did the approach of
an .attacking army in the cent-
uries before Christ.
Dun Aengus is only one of four
such megalithic constructions on
Inishmore. ,
All three islands have very
little ground which has not been
cleared by sledgehammer and
fertilized with seaweed brought
up from the sea in panniers
slung over the sides of donkeys.
Keeping the soil, so laboriously
created, from sliding down into
the sea is achieved by building
stone walls, so that all three Is-
lands present a maze of small
fields enclosed by inter -locking
walls, broken only by the road
which bisects each of the islands
Since there are no bogs, all the
turf burned on the islands is
brought from Connemara.
In the springtime the cattle,
which have been foraging among
the rocks all winter, are shipped
to the mainland for fattening on
Connemara grass, and one of the
great sights on Aran is the is-
landers swimming their cows out
from shore behind their curragh,
to be hoisted aboard the steamer.
One man kneels in the stern,
watching for the thrashing legs
to tire before he seizes the
frightened animal by the horns
maneuvers her onto her side and
brings her head to rest on the
stern.
Synge's book about Aran is the
best account one could ask for
of the daily life of the people —
of the way they burned kelp,
fished from a curragh or hud-
dled in their darkened cottages
and spoke in hushed whispers
when the islands were lashed by
storms. But it is also an inter-
esting document in the case his-
tory of a writer's evolution. —
From "J. M. Synge," by David
H. Greene and Edward M. Ste-
phens.
She Makes Dummies
For The Movies
The movie is "Elmer Gantry."
Jean Simmons stands in the mid-
dle of the flaming tabernacle,
looking around and waving her
arms to calm her flock—but it is
not really Miss Simons. It is a
dummy manipulated by wires.
The movie is "Hatari," now
shooting in Tanganyika. In it,
John Wayne, Gerard Blain, and
Elsa' Martinelli get some rough
treatment from stampeding ele-
phants and other wild animals.
But it will not really be Wayne
or Main or Martinelli pummeled
by the pachyderms—it will be
dummies.
The movie was "Gone With
the Wind," and, in a famous
scene, the railroad station was
filled with wounded and dying
solders. A few were -extras;
sevrr " hundred of them wer;