Of course, being English I watched it all from the car window musing on what I would install to fill the space. Rows of vegetables, flowerbeds, an orchard and maybe a greenhouse. Any number of things that would add clutter and fill a day with more work. Later, travelling east to County Laois through horse racing country, it occurred to me that, enviably, to the Irish, the ‘rat race’ is more likely to be seen as something different to bet on.
The Irish people take a lot of things very seriously, yet still give the impression of being outwardly eccentric, even innocent in their outlook. The short lived economic boom of the 1990’s spawned reports of ‘irrational exuberance and naïve financial indiscretions’. These are perhaps easy to understand after a long history of conflict, troubles and grinding poverty. The history of County Mayo goes back way into prehistory, from Neolithic, early Christians, Clan kings, the Reformation and Oliver Cromwell to English empirical arrogance.