Connemara.net

Listening to the Wind Tim Robinson
Tim Robinson has already made a reputation for himself as one of Ireland's most celebrated non-fiction writers, with the two-volume Stones of Aran. Here, he focuses his close attention and bright prose on the west Connemara territory of Roundstone, where he lives. (Oct.'06)

Curiosities of Connemara Michael Gibbons
Famous 19th century characters about the town of Clifden included Cailleach An Chlocháin (the witch of Clifden), a powerful and feared woman who had the power of the curse and the cure. She was part of a common Irish rural pattern, perhaps a survivor of the earlier Irish traditions, and people flocked to her from all over the west. (Sep.'05)

Portrait of a landscape (telegraph.co.uk)
Christopher Somerville follows in the footsteps of Synge and J B Yeats 100 years after the playwright and the painter set out to explore the remote south Connemara islands (Jun. '05)

Walk of the Month (The Daily Telegraph)
Christopher Somerville enjoys a lesson in history - and comedy - while climbing the mini-mountains of Connemara. (Jul.'04)

Commuter Science 7 Ralph Lavelle
The day I made my first proto-DVD was a good one. Just seeing my scrappy holiday footage come up on the TV, being read and played by my new Sony DVD player was a real thrill. By this time I realized I had developed a serious DVD fetish, and wouldn't touch movies on video cassettes any more. Same with music: it's got to be MP3s on a CD for me now - no more cassette tapes, thanks. (Apr.'03)

Commuter Science 6 Ralph Lavelle
In Tim Robinson's 'A Connemara Fractal', from his fascinating 'Setting Foot on the Shores of Connemara' collection, the weird science of fractals is brought down to the familiar shoreline of Connemara. In typical fashion, Tim makes you think about something you pass every day in a new way. He foots ideas out of the turf, then manipulates the conceptual sod like a Rubik's cube. I'm a fanboy, as they say in the world of Japanese videogaming. (May '02)

Linda O'Malley - Person in Profile Ben Crow (The Connemara Advertiser)
"I'm very interested in the technical side of the radio and although I love editing recorded interviews. At first, I didn't think of myself as an interviewer. I actually did no presenting at all - until Mary Ruddy made me!" This is how Station Manager, Linda O'Malley, described her reluctant broadcasting debut for Connemara Community Radio. Still preferring to be at the controls in the studio rather than behind the microphone, Linda has conquered her stage fright and now features regularly in the radio schedules. (Apr.'02)

Commuter Science 5 Ralph Lavelle
Took the afternoon Ryanair over to London the other day to remind myself once again just how different London is from Clifden. They really are a world apart. We have our own Trafalgar Square, but while theirs is plagued with pigeons, we have skateboarders. Every town has skateboarders. A metaphysical enquiry: if you own a skateboard but don't actually demonstrate any ability to use one, are you a 'skateboarder'? (Apr.'02)

Michael Gibbons - Person in Profile Ben Crow (The Connemara Advertiser)
“I grew up on the streets of Clifden. I say that because in those days we kids lived out in the streets. Most people have now moved out of the town and it’s become more of a commercial base. But back then, all the buildings that are now just shops were houses as well. Every family seemed to have seven or more children – I am the middle child of seven myself. It was an amazingly social thing too, everyone knew everyone else and their business. There were very few cars and you could spend all day safely just out in the street.” (Mar.'02)

Commuter Science 4 Ralph Lavelle
We, as a species, are on the cusp of greatness. I'm talking about video. Making your own videos, sticking them on your own websites, creating and distributing your own cds or dvds. This year I'm a video evangelist. I'm bustin' with enthusiasm for the desktop video revolution quietly changing the old world order and I demand that you feel the same excitement that I feel. (Mar.'02)

Notes From Inishbofin Joanne Elliott (The Connemara Advertiser)
The weather has been frightful all week, floods in Dublin, Cork and Galway and enormous seas at the mouth of Inishbofin Harbour crashing above the ‘Bishop’. Bishop Rock is uncovered only at low tide. It gets its name from the story that the Bishop of Clonfert, hiding from the army of Oliver Cromwell, was discovered, stripped naked and left there to drown. (Mar.'02)

Commuter Science 3 Ralph Lavelle
The strength of the web is, in cases like this, also its weakness - that anyone can 'publish' material on any subject, and present it as expert and impartial, with no peer review or disinterested critical disclaimers. Not that there's anything the slightest bit contentious on any local websites I can think of, if you ignore the usual marketingese . Which is a shame - all we seem to be able to use the most exciting new medium in a generation for is to sell ourselves. (Feb.'02)

Marie Feeney - Person in Profile Ben Crow (The Connemara Advertiser)
A life-long Cleggan resident and author of an authoritative account of 'The Cleggan Bay Disaster', a unique tragedy in Irish boating history, Marie Feeney describes what compelled her to write the book. (Feb.'02)

Kate O'Toole - Best Actress 2001 Ben Crow (The Connemara Advertiser)
One of the few genuine stars of theatre and film for which Connemara is renowned, Kate O’Toole is perhaps the region’s best kept secret. Appeared first in The Connemara Advertiser (Feb.'02)

Commuter Science 2 Ralph Lavelle
But wait a minute - doesn't Connemara also have its own region in space? The Connemara region of Europa - one of the moons of Jupiter - is so named because its chaotic beauty reminded the wife of the NASA team leader of their stay in the wesht. This is perfect. This brings it back home. (Jan.'02)

Commuter Science 1 Ralph Lavelle
Anyone who chooses the commuter lifestyle signs up for a quixotic struggle against nature, against the particle, betrayed by the greasy peddlers of Bluetooth, WAP, and other frictionless myths. Half a world away from my desk, I clutch my computer goodies anxiously to my breast. In a sense, have I even left home? How far have I commuted? (Dec.'01)

Lepers: Alive and Well in Boston Noel Mannion (The Connemara Advertiser)
Beckett, Joyce, Synge, Yeats, Wilde - all household names in the history of Irish Literature. Soon it may be time to add Ronan Noone, a native of Clifden, to this elite list of Irish playwrights and poets, if reviews and reports from Boston University are anything to go by. Appeared first in The Connemara Advertiser (Dec.'01)

An Ancient History of Connemara.net Ralph Lavelle
...I quickly set us up at www.iol.ie/clifden, which in retrospect was probably just as knuckleheaded a web address as CT's, implying a focus on Clifden's affairs at the expense of the rest of Connemara. (Nov.'01)

Grading Day Ralph Lavelle
Saturday the 12th of July was Kyokushinkai Karate grading day in Clifden Town Hall. For many in the Clifden dojo, myself included, it was only the second grading since starting, and therefore a chance to trade our lowly white belts for ninja-spanking red ones. (Jul. '01)

Kafka - Alive and Well in Connemara Ralph Lavelle
I have recently seen a few get-togethers and conversations with close friends and acquaintances dominated by the subject of building a house and planning permission, and witnessed a real sense of frustration and dismay among what I consider to be reasonable people. (Mar. '01)

The Ghost of Connemaroo Michael Snyder
I'm talking about the Ghost of Connemaroo, the pagan spirit that takes hope away with his "touch" and then the people "touched" die or commit suicide.

Down Under Uploader Ralph Lavelle
An account, personal and technical, of swanning off to Australia for 3 months while trying not to kiss goodbye to my web business... (Dec. '00)

Truelight Adventuring Ita Kane
I had the opportunity to go sailing on the Truelight, now anchored in Roundstone pier. Built in the early 1920s, Truelight is the last of the famous Claddagh Hookers. (Aug. '00)

Surfing in Connemara Jason Foyle
Though surfing has been in Hawaii for hundreds of years and is already thirty years old in Ireland, it is only one generation old in Connemara and my friends and I are privileged to have been the first. (July.'00)

Roaming Across Europe Ralph Lavelle
If you are a web developer who wants to learn about the burgeoning, much-hyped field of WAP-based internet services, then you'd be a sucker not to bring your new Nokia 7110 WAP mobile phone abroad with you if you went to, say, Greece. (June '00)

Clifden's Flotilla Sails to Bofin Damian Ward
Saturday 17th of June saw "Clifden Boat Club's" organised Yacht Flotilla take to the seas, sailing from Clifden Bay to Inish Bofin. This was the best turn out to date for a yacht cruise. (June '00)

E-commerce as Usual Ralph Lavelle
Remember when the web was weird? I remember the excitement I felt four-and-a-half years ago, in June '95, when my cousin Robert Joyce showed Gavin and me the world wide web from his home in Recess. (Dec.'99)

A Wet Weekend in Connemara (or, How I Learned to Love the Bog) Seán Harnett
"Last autumn, having just quit my job, I needed to get into the countryside to clear my head. Living as I did at the time in Galway City the obvious destination was west, into Connemara – Ireland’s land of mountains and water..." (July '99)

The Galway Races Mary Hession
This year's meeting was the busiest yet, with plans to extend the festival for next year. (July '98)

History in the Making Simon Murray
Why you should vote!

Aviation in Galway and Connemara Guy Warner
At the western extremity of the county, at Clifden in Connemara, one of the bravest of the pioneering flights reached its successful conclusion, when on 15th June 1919, at 08.40, the Vickers Vimy piloted by John Alcock and with Arthur Whitten Brown as the navigator landed in Derrygimla Bog.

Hillwalking Journal Ralph Lavelle
Tully Mountain with the Beanna Beola Walkers (Dec. '97)

A Life on the Sea John Ryan
My name is John Ryan. I am a charter fishing skipper and have been for over 25 years. I still love fishing, the sea and boats, and it shows. I fish off the west coast of Ireland among habited and uninhabited islands where water is warmed by the Gulf Stream, or North Atlantic Drift as the more technically correct prefer to call it.

Talking Horses Brian Thornton
A Celebration of the Irishness of the Cheltenham Festival (Feb. '98)