A Thing of Beauty

If anyone asks me where to go in Ireland, I have to say Connemara. Connemara is without a doubt the most beautiful place in the world. When we were kids, our family used to go on “Sunday spins” (i.e. a Sunday drive) throughout the summer. Living in Westport, we found plenty of places for our Sunday spin: the wildness of Achill Island, the unspoiled woods of Tourmakeady, and, some days even the big city, Galway! But I always asked to go to Connemara. We would follow the route winding around Kylemore Abbey, by Killary Harbour, and through the tiny village of Leenane (of “The Quiet Man” fame). At that time of year, purple rhododendrons lined the road, beckoning to us that there was more beauty to come. We always found that beauty in Clifden. Clifden is a market town, set between the Atlantic Ocean and preserved bog lands. Driving into the town, the Twelve Ben Mountains rise up, surrounding the town as if to both announce and protect this, the most beautiful place on earth.


Whenever I hear the word “picturesque,” I think of Clifden. My brothers soon tired of the Sunday spins, but I never did. I still drive to Clifden with my parents whenever I am home. I recently learned that this was also my grandfather’s favorite place, and there is something comforting in knowing that – to think that he used to drive this route too! I wonder what he saw, what he felt. Did he love the drive through the rugged, sometimes barren landscape, giving rise to purple and green hills? Or did he prefer the beauty and stillness of Killary Harbour, surrounded in mists of gray? I’ll never know because I didn’t get the chance to ask him before he died. But I can picture my grandfather standing at the harbor’s edge, staring at the beauty stretched out before him, and sometimes, when I need to, I can close my eyes and go stand there beside him. Together we breathe in that sense of peace, that sense of utter contentment that I know he must have felt too, that sense of pure happiness that can only come from holding your grandfather’s hand, standing together in silence, surrounded by the wonder of the most beautiful place on earth.