h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm just back from a few days in Donegal in the north-west of Ireland. The reason for the journey was a wedding, or to be more precise a Iranian/Chinese Bahai wedding deep in the heart of rural Ireland. With that billing, I just had to go, didn't I? The groom is a very good friend and one of the most kind-hearted and generous people I know.

It was a long trip, so I stayed a night in Galway on the way up with a friend of mine. Galway is a bustling city - there's always something on this time of the year. I stayed in Salthill, a sea-side resort on the edge of the town. I took a walk down the prom, and then turned for the house I was staying in, where I sat down to watch a documentary about a notorious cult-figure in the US who has married 60 women and is on the FBI's top ten most wanted list. Some people have all the fun, don't they?

After a brief conversation with my friend in Galway that morning I drove up north, on surprisingly good roads all the way. After stopping off in the B&B just outside of Donegal town, I made my way to the wedding and I had a great time. It was a simple yet beautiful ceremony, delivered in four languages, lasting no more than around 30 minutes and interspersed with Chinese and Iranian music. The reception itself was more typical of a normal wedding yet infused with a passion for life throughout: the groom broke down in tears during his speech, and saught the arms of his new wife for reassurance. It was a simple gesture, yet wonderful at the same time. I danced the night away (on rare occasions I let all my inhibitions drop away and my dancing starts to resemble a punk-rocker trying to fight a swarm of killer bees - this was one of those nights). I blame the Kaiser Chiefs, or perhaps the Persian dance class beforehand..

The following day I made a decision. I decided to spend another night away before I headed back. So instead of making my way down to Cork, I headed further north to the Rosses, to do a bit of coast-walking. I drove to Burtonport and then spent a couple of hours scaling the rocks, bogs and beaches of the area. The landscape was wonderful - orchids growing all around, noisy oystercatchers defending their territories, megalithic stones, clean water and golden beaches. Very nice indeed.

After that I made my way down to Birr, Co. Offaly: the location of the world's largest telescope during the nineteenth century, and now almost fully restored back to it's former glory. The telescope is in the grounds of Birr Castle estate - a beautiful setting of magnificent trees, lakes, bridges and wide lawns. I have been keen on going there for quite a while. The telescope is currently surrounded in metal fences due to a hydraulic problem. Had it been working properly, the previous night would have been an amazing time for observing. Not only could I see Milky Way last night, but also I could clearly make out the dark lanes of gas flowing in front of the main star fields.

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/woodpigeon01/album?.dir=/cc61scd

Wonderful photos - made me a tad homesick for the Western Isles

Glad you had a good trip.

Hi, Woodpigeon,

Sounded lovely. What a wedding should be I think. No mention of Mrs. so you had a 'bachelor' time then did you?

Does Mrs. get time off for good behaviour sometimes too

The vision of your dancing is wonderful.

Hope your litlle (not so little now) ones are doing well.

and Hi, to Mrs.

Websailor

The Earl of Rosse may have inspired Jules Verne...

http://labbey.com/Telescopes/Parsontown.html

*sigh*..It all looks very beautiful!!

Yes - it was a bit of time-off for myself. The whole thing has re-ignited a my love of diving and snorkelling. It would have been lovely just to explore the nooks and crannies underwater, it was so spectacularly clear. Normally these things are not easy to do when you have 4 kiddies to look after.

On my way down I couldn't get over the large number of "NO MAST HERE" protests, complaining about the erection of Vodafone and O2 3G masts, with emotional messages about saving our children's health etc. I'm not aware of any research showing even a probable link between mobile phone masts and people's health, but it doesn't seem to be stopping them.

I wonder how many of the people who are organising the protests have a mobile themselves. And how many would let their children use one?

I'm not aware of any information on the health risks of masts either...and I doubt it's been studied. However, the health scare is a convenient excuse for a different problem - that of the visual blight of the things.

I don't know what the planning laws are like in Ireland, but in the Thatcher days, when mobile phones were still a yuppie accessory, our planning laws were re-written to exclude masts, making it easy for companies to stick one wherever they damn well choose, without consulting or even informing anyone. A friend had his view of the hills completely obscured when one suddnly appeared right next door to him. On the one hand...cellular communications are definitely a public good. On the other...a bit of sensitivity and design investment is in order.

I kind of sympathise with the anti-windfarm people, too. Yes, renawable energy sources are essential. But there must be a better solution than sticking those immense, inefficient Tellytubbie things all over every available stretch of moorland.

There have been a lot of studies of the health effects of mobile phone masts. I believe the risks are far less than the risk from talking into a mobile phone.

The planning laws in Ireland are reasonably OK, but have been open to widespread corruption in the past.

I think it would be a lot more reasonable and credible to say "you know, they look awful" than to bring health issues in - one of the posters I saw made the classic (incorrect) linkage between microwave antennae and microwave ovens (yawn). If it wasn't so capable of generating real fear in people it would be laughable. I remember some years ago a bit protest taking place in my home parish about a radio mast being built on top of a local hill. One of the speakers was "Mary Kelly, Science Student, U.C.G." Oooh! Must sit up and listen then!

Our local farmers are currently protesting against an electricity company regarding the erection of wind-farms. They too are bring in the health issue, and yet everyone knows their complaint is far more mundane in reality - they want moolah.

The crofters of Lewis, who own their land communally, have recently voted to allow masses and masses of windfarms, with the hope of a cable to the mainland. They've been swayed by the money. The pity of it is that they are likely to see *very* little of it.

Mind you...Lewis is a godforsaken place. Windfarms can only improve the landscape.

There's a windfarm in North Wales.. and when the aspects are right, it sounds like an oil derrick across the Wirral!

Strange, because I've stood within 10 feet of a wind farm and wasn't able to hear anything at all.

Traveller in Time imagining a farm producing wind
"Must be the engines powering the wind turbines "

Gnomon, is that the wind-farm in Rosslare, or should I say Carnsore Point?

They're building a big one near me, on Eaglesham Moor. That's where Rudolph Hess landed.

If you ask me, we should be building them in cities. And we should also have a bloody big turbine in the middle of Pentland Firth.

The biggest ones in Ireland, which I believe are also the biggest in the world, are in the sea about 10 miles off the coast at Arklow.

The quiet ones are indeed the Carnsore Windfarm, built on the site reserved for Ireland's first nuclear power station, a project which was cancelled in the 1970's.

There are some forward thinking groups building wind power. Near work, a new apartment building has a wind turbine on the roof, then there is the co-op tower that has been reclad in solar panels.

The leviathan was what the 3rd Earl of Rosse used to see and draw the structure of the whirlpool galaxy wasn't it.

That's the scope: it was the biggest one in the world for 71 years apparently. The telescope only points up and down a meridian line, so it preceeded GOTO technology by some time. There was also a smaller (but still impressive) equatorially mounted telescope on the estate - I'm not sure where it's gone now though.

Old maps of Ireland clearly show the Arklow Banks as having been above water, like extensive offshore islands some distance away from the Wicklow coast. The wind turbines there are very impressive - the maintenance bill must be enormous though! I assume they are connected to the Irish mainland via a set of underwater cables.

My husband's favourite Thinking Place is on Eaglesham Moor. That's where he decided to ask me to marry him.