‘Europe’s Atlantic Fringe’

There’s a smattering of Iberia in the west-Kerry gaeltacht and some say it wouldn’t take too much digging to find traces of a few fired clay castanets. Dingle merchants were said to be so familiar with Spanish kingdoms in the Middle Ages that some of them built houses in similar architectural style.
Distressing television images of migrants on the Mediterranean trying to reach a “fortress” Europe contrast harshly with the relative freedom – pirates notwithstanding – that seaways once offered to great movements of peoples. Milesians, Phoenicians, Vikings, Moorish sailors made great discoveries and shaped our identity and our DNA. And when a group of Kerry adventurers completed a three-summer sea journey from Ireland to northern Spain in a naomhóg last year , they were once again challenging the myth of the “pure Celt”.
The Irish Times Marine and West correspondent Lorna Siggins has this excellent review of a book on ‘the Atlantic Fringe’. Full article at this link:
http://www.irishtimes.com/…/the-wild-atlantic-way-extended-…
BERNARD MOFFATT
Public Relations Officer Mannin Branch
Issued by: The Mannin branch of the Celtic League.
19/06/17