{"id":363,"date":"2020-07-31T09:37:17","date_gmt":"2020-07-31T13:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wanderofwanders.com\/?p=363"},"modified":"2025-08-26T13:39:32","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T17:39:32","slug":"clarity-in-corofin-and-the-burren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wanderofwanders.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/31\/clarity-in-corofin-and-the-burren\/","title":{"rendered":"Clarity in Corofin and the Burren"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
The Burren, up close and personal. This is a spirit unto itself, my new sense of place. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dia dhuit from Corofin, Ireland, \u201cthe gateway to the Burren.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When last I wrote, I was ending my two-week quarantine and heading to Ennis, the County Clare seat and a thriving small city of around 30,000. The center of Ennis is a delightful place, narrow streets streaming seemingly pell-mell from the center square where stands an imposing monument to the great 19th<\/sup> century Irish political leader Daniel O\u2019Connell, The Liberator. He also has a street named after him, as does Charles Stewart Parnell, revered for advocating Home Rule for Ireland. <\/strong>Of the many truths about Ireland that I am absorbing on almost an hourly basis, I have found that the people here truly honor the heroes who labored to bring them freedom. I suppose this is true of any country, is it not? I would wager that just about every town in America has a street or school named for George Washington. But here it seems to take on an urgency, perhaps because the Irish are so newly freed. It was only 73 years ago that the Republic was formed. And I suspect because this is in recent ancestral memory, it remains fresh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I felt an affinity for Ennis when I visited last year with my daughter Bridget. We both loved the brightly painted buildings cheek-to-jowl with the street, the numerous small bakeries, butchers, knickknack shops (love the knickknack shops!), bookstores, pubs, restaurants. It was and remains a vibrant place, all the more inviting now because the local council shut down many streets to traffic since the start of COVID-19 last March. I also discovered the Ennis Farmer\u2019s Market, which I have been visiting weekly for fresh, hardy sourdough bread, eggs fresh from the farm, cheeses and probably the best lettuce I have tasted in many a year. But alas, once one leaves the city center, Ennis becomes a bit of a sprawl, one \u201cestate\u201d (typically townhouse developments of varying sizes) after another, interspersed with other estates of single-family homes. The homes, in my brief experience, are rarely for rent and the paltry few rentals are not particularly inviting. Another of the truths I have learned about Ireland is that the housing market is in disarray. Not just here, not just there, but everywhere. There are simply too few available places to live. I joined a Facebook group comprised of people looking for rentals and those with spaces to rent. It is not atypical to read of a room in a Dublin apartment going for $1,000 or more, $800 to share a room. This lack of housing was a rallying cry for the political party Sinn Fein during last February\u2019s elections here. Once (and some apparently say still) considered the political arm of the Irish Republican Army, the party did much better than anyone expected here in the Republic, garnering 24.5percent of the vote (from among 10 parties on the ballot; quite a difference from the US stranglehold of 2).  Sinn Fein attracted younger, more urban residents who according to reports at the time basically said, \u201cIRA, schmIRA. That\u2019s your past, not ours. We need housing!\u201d (\u201cThe Troubles\u201d were not far, however, from the minds of the two major parties, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, who basically shut out Sein Fein from the coalition government they formed this month. Another of those truths: distrust appears to still abound in certain circles north and south.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did not intend to\ncast a wider net during those long months in Maine when I was planning to move to\nEnnis, but I am grateful that I decided to wait until I arrived to make any\ndecisions. And so as fate would have it, I find myself living in the village of\nCorofin, population 776.I found my place through a lovely new friend,\na very talented artist and mother named Fiona. She grew up in West Clare (the\n\u201ccounty\u201d is assumed, as in West Clare, North Clare, etc.) and has lived in this\ntown for more than 15 years. It didn\u2019t take long before she learned that this\none knew that one who had a place just about to go on the market. I am grateful\nto her and to the fates who directed me here.  Although it is only about 20 minutes from\nEnnis, Corofin seems a world away. It has a couple of small grocery\/convenience\nstores, a pharmacy, at least three pubs, a mechanic, a Gaelic Athletic\nAssociation Gaelic football field and an enormous, over-the-top monument to, I\nthink, Lourdes, replete with stone grotto, beatific Mary and kneeling girl. Next\ndoor to my apartment is the Catholic Church, named for the great early Irish\nspiritual leader Brigid. My daughter is named not only for her great-great\ngrandmother, also named Bridget, but also in honor of this this revered woman.\nSo I take comfort from this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps most\nimportantly, Corofin is just minutes away from the Burren. You may recall that\nI mentioned the Burren in my last post, that vista of rock mountains that I\ncould see in the distance from the cottage where I was quarantining. Here, the\nBurren is a close neighbor. I have only taken a couple of walks thusfar into\nthis almost lunar landscape, and I declare myself smitten. I can certainly\nunderstand why generation upon generation have found a sense of place there.\nAccording to Hugh Carthy, author of the book \u201cBurren Archaeology,\u201d the Burren\nis a region of karst, \u201crough limestone terrain with underground drainage, and\nit is the interaction with water and limestone since the end of the last Ice\nAge 12,000 years ago that gives the area its distinctive appearance and\ncharacteristics.\u201d Because of those rock surfaces, he said, the Burren has one\nof the densest concentrations of archaeological sites in the country. We\u2019re\ntalking cairns, and holy wells (tobars), and castles, and ringforts, and caves,\nand more \u2013 some predating Christianity. And I hope to visit as many as\npossible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will tell you that\nI feel an otherworldly pull when I am there. For many years, my sense of place\nhas been defined by the Atlantic Ocean on the coast of Maine, its majesty, its\nferocity, its summer calm, the rock-strewn coast. It has been my go-to place\nwhen I have needed to quiet my thoughts. But here \u2014here I am setting out to\nlive in a place defined in some much more fundamental way to nature, her\nmercurial whims and abiding beauty. As those who follow me on Facebook or\nInstagram may recall, I wrote not long ago of visiting the sixth century oratory\nand cave of Colman Mac Duagh, the son of a local chieftain and an ascetic monk.\nThat I stood where trod souls who lived 1,400 years ago was awesome enough, but\nit was an experience made all the more poignant by the Burren\u2019s \u2026 atmosphere,\nfor want of a better word. Soul may be closer the mark. The clouds meet the\nearth, enveloping it in a fine mist that is luminous and elemental and very\nancient. And this is my sense of place now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Burren is not\nalone in offering wonders to me. Last week, Fiona and I drove to Doolin about\n30 minutes away on the coast (known, by the way, for McDermott\u2019s Bar which\nsells T-shirts owned by all my siblings and me). We walked a grass-carved path\nfrom there to the start of the Cliffs of Moher. This is my Atlantic, the same\none that brings me solace in Maine; but instead of a rocky coast, the ocean\nwaters push against sheer rising cliffs that take the breath. I am somehow glad\nI do not live right on the coast, that it must become an excursion. This, too,\nfeels right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the coming month\nor so, I\u2019m going on a \u201cstaycation\u201d in my new country. I\u2019ll be taking advantage\nof the lack of tourists (for the most part; certainly the lack of American\ntourists) to travel to all the nooks and crannies I\u2019ve only dreamed about. My\ndreams, just so you are prepared, tend toward ancient and archaeological sites\nscattered about the country \u2013 not so much to the cities. And as for Dublin, I\u2019m\nnot even sure I could get a mouse nook to stay in! For sure on the list: the\nRing of Kerry; the Beara Penninsula in West Cork (that\u2019s the western part of\nCounty Cork, right?); the Hills of Tara, Newgrange, Rathcroghan, all ancient\nsites; Lough Key, the home of the ancient McDermott clan; and of course, County\nTyrone in Northern Ireland from where my granddad hailed. Just these alone will\nkeep me busy for a while. So stay tuned!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for wider travel,\nthe government just last week released its \u201cgreen list\u201d of 15 countries that\nhave done as good as or better than Ireland in containing COVID-19 and where it\nis therefore safe to travel. It will be revised every two weeks, so the\ncountries listed today may not be there tomorrow. Italy, which only months ago\nwas a COVID hotbed, is listed and may be my first destination this fall. But\nGreece is on the list and calls, as does Norway. As predicted, the US is not on\nthe list. Although I knew this was going to be true, I am saddened that my\nfamily and friends are precluded from visiting me. And I am beholden to an\ninvisible force, a virus, that will decide when they can come. I am very\nmindful of this virus; it is impossible not to be. I remind myself that on so\nmany levels I am blessed. But Ireland in COVID times is not the Ireland that\nwould have greeted me a year ago. Sometimes I feel like I owe it to this\nadopted country of mine to stick around for a while, just so I can take part in\nthe full Irish life of festivals, trad music in pubs and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I leave you with some snapshot moments I have written down in my little notebook in these past weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*A grizzled grandfather drives his tractor past my window here in Corofin, a grandson of 7 or 8 perched in the passenger seat, eyes ashine and mouth in a perfect smile. How lucky is he!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Here in late July,\na teenager drives by on her bike, wearing running shorts, a faded red\nsweatshirt and a wool hat \u2013 a ubiquitous uniform of summer in North Clare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*My daypack gets a\nworkout here. Daily outerwear packed for walk or car trip: a hoodie, a jean\njacket, a rain jacket. These are added and subtracted as needed over a core\noutfit that always includes jeans and tops that range from T-shirts (almost\nnever), a long-sleeved light weight top (often), a cotton sweater (also often)\nand sometimes a fleece-lined shell. This is to deal with this finicky, mercurial\nweather that can begin at 65 (a high) and sunny, switch in a nanosecond to an\nangry sky and serious winds, switch a second later to blue skies peeking out of\nash gray clouds, switch again to pouring rain. It\u2019s nearly schizophrenic, this\nweather. I continue to grapple with it\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* Driving: OMG!!! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*I had dinner last\nnight with a retired New Hampshire teacher who settled in a small village just\noutside of Corofin seven years ago! So weird. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Fresh eggs on\nTuesday at the local store (!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*And here\u2019s an entry: I believe I would do well to overcome\nmy natural reticence about engaging in small, convivial conversations with\npeople. Egads!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information, here\u2019s some helpful links:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel O\u2019Connell  https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/culture\/heritage\/daniel-o-connell-the-greatest-of-all-politicians-1.3986230<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles Stewart Parnell  https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Charles-Stewart-Parnell<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corofin  https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CorofinCommunityEvents\/<\/a>; http:\/\/visitcorofin.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burren https:\/\/www.burrennationalpark.ie\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out the work of my friend Fiona www.kilbahagallery.com\/artists\/fiona-quinn-cartwright<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CAPTIONS, from top and left to right<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Quin Abbey. This was one side of a perfect square around a courtyard where monks walked in contemplation<\/li>
  2. Ennis<\/li>
  3. Corofin. My little red rental car is there on the left.<\/li>
  4. The cave of Colman Mac Duagh. He is alleged to have lived in the cave for seven years!<\/li>
  5. The view of Corofin from my second-story bedroom window. I took this to indicate a typical summer sky: light, dark, blue all at once<\/li>
  6. I am sitting overlooking the very start of the Cliffs of Moher, following about an hour walk down a path from Doolin<\/li>
  7. The pyramidal orchid, found at the Burren<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
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    Dia dhuit from Corofin, Ireland, \u201cthe gateway to the Burren.\u201d When last I wrote, I was ending my two-week quarantine and heading to Ennis, the County Clare seat and a thriving small city of around 30,000. The center of Ennis is a delightful place, narrow streets streaming seemingly pell-mell from the center square where stands an imposing monument to the great 19th century Irish political leader Daniel O\u2019Connell, The Liberator. He also has a street named after him, as does Charles Stewart Parnell, revered for advocating Home Rule for Ireland. Of the many truths about Ireland that I am absorbing on almost an hourly basis, … Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nClarity in Corofin and the Burren - Not all who wander are lost<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wanderofwanders.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/31\/clarity-in-corofin-and-the-burren\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Clarity in Corofin and the Burren - Not all who wander are lost\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dia dhuit from Corofin, Ireland, \u201cthe gateway to the Burren.\u201d When last I wrote, I was ending my two-week quarantine and heading to Ennis, the County Clare seat and a thriving small city of around 30,000. 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Not all who wander are lost","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/wanderofwanders.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/31\/clarity-in-corofin-and-the-burren\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Clarity in Corofin and the Burren - Not all who wander are lost","og_description":"Dia dhuit from Corofin, Ireland, \u201cthe gateway to the Burren.\u201d When last I wrote, I was ending my two-week quarantine and heading to Ennis, the County Clare seat and a thriving small city of around 30,000. The center of Ennis is a delightful place, narrow streets streaming seemingly pell-mell from the center square where stands an imposing monument to the great 19th century Irish political leader Daniel O\u2019Connell, The Liberator. He also has a street named after him, as does Charles Stewart Parnell, revered for advocating Home Rule for Ireland. Of the many truths about Ireland that I am absorbing on almost an hourly basis, ... Continue Reading","og_url":"https:\/\/wanderofwanders.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/31\/clarity-in-corofin-and-the-burren\/","og_site_name":"Not all who wander are lost","article_published_time":"2020-07-31T13:37:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-08-26T17:39:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1920,"url":"https:\/\/wanderofwanders.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Wander-fix.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Deborah","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Deborah","Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/wanderofwanders.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/31\/clarity-in-corofin-and-the-burren\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/wanderofwanders.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/31\/clarity-in-corofin-and-the-burren\/"},"author":{"name":"Deborah","@id":"https:\/\/wanderofwanders.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c96e9ae6dcac43578dc86213265f326f"},"headline":"Clarity in Corofin and the Burren","datePublished":"2020-07-31T13:37:17+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-26T17:39:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/wanderofwanders.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/31\/clarity-in-corofin-and-the-burren\/"},"wordCount":2103,"commentCount":5,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/wanderofwanders.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c7294e70e284fd72e761591b51bfad45"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/wanderofwanders.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/31\/clarity-in-corofin-and-the-burren\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wanderofwanders.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/blog3.1-scaled.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/wanderofwanders.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/31\/clarity-in-corofin-and-the-burren\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/wanderofwanders.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/31\/clarity-in-corofin-and-the-burren\/","url":"https:\/\/wanderofwanders.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/31\/clarity-in-corofin-and-the-burren\/","name":"Clarity in Corofin and the Burren - 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