Comeragh Mountains Magic

The Boolas Pater Noster/Ribbon Lakes from the Comeragh Plateau A Special Comeragh Place – The Boolas There is no doubt that we humans have special places that affect us in indefinable ways. As Nicholas Crane puts it in his book “The making of the British Landscape” - “We have a predisposition to invest locations with attachments”. Why do we become attached to certain places? Now there`s a sixty-four-thousand-dollar question! Do these places fire our imagination or lift our spirit? Do they help us accept if not understand our place in the cosmos? Howsoever it works, we seem to have a need as humans to switch off from the treadmill of modern life and visit our special places to experience the tranquility and pleasure they give us. It is not surprising to my mind that many of these special places are found in mountains . Mountains have a sense of timelessness and permanence about them that make us all too aware of our own mortality. They seem to speak to our souls and draw us back t...

 Crotty the Robber Rapparees T he word “ropaire” in Irish has come to mean robber but in the late 17th century the term “ropairí” (the verb “ropaim” means I tear) referred to short pike wielding guerrilla fighters who fought on the side of the Jacobites against the Williamites and who continued to harass the forces of the law well into the 18th century. They came to be known as rapparees and loosely they equated to the highwaymen of English tradition of that period. The rapparee was often regarded as a type of social bandit, officially an outlaw but not seen as a criminal by his own community. In fact, many rapparees were admired by the Irish peasants. They were seen as brave opponents of the oppressive colonial system. They were often lauded in verse, think of the song “Brennan on the moor”, praising the deeds of Willie Brennan around the Kilworth mountains. They would often show up at fairs and funerals, sometimes sharing their spoils with members of their community. Were they a...