Did you manage to guess whose shadow we previously posted on Facebook from our 6 day Sojourn of South West Ireland tour? It was the great luminary of the silent screen, Charlie Chaplin.
In this blog, we take a look at why this, and other statues on the Ring of Kerry, are sculpted and sited here along the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland.
In common with many other nations, we Irish tend to have a penchant for statues. Of course, the vast majority are local heroes of history and mythology – or native sons and daughters who ‘done good’ in far flung lands. But, apart from such historic figures, recognition also tends to be given to visitors who make an impression on local or national communities.
Chaplin first visited Waterville, County Kerry, in 1959 and for the next ten years he returned annually with wife Oona O’Neill and their eight children. She, of course, was the daughter of Nobel Laureate and multi-Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Eugene O’ Neill, whose father hailed from County Kilkenny. It is said that Chaplin was enamoured with the fishing and veritable anonymity that Waterville afforded. He also claimed to be the grandson of an Irish gypsy.
The Irishman who Discovered America before Columbus
This simple but evocative monument to St. Brendan the Navigator and his crew, is also located on the Ring of Kerry.
Brendan was a native of Kerry and (we in Ireland reckon), was the man who discovered America long before Columbus. Most (non-Irish) tend to debunk this as being typical Irish guff and blarney, i.e., never let the truth get in the way of a good story! However, in the mid-1970s English explorer, the late Tim Severin, proved it could have been done.
Using a boat built with materials and technology from ancient times, he and his small crew set sail from Brandon Creek, near Dingle in Co. Kerry. Having wintered in Iceland, they reached North America when they landed at Peckford Island, Newfoundland in Canada, some thirteen months later.
St. Brendan is the patron saint of navigators and a stained glass window dedicated to him is sited in St. Andrew’s Chapel at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. You too learn all about him on Anam Croí Ireland Tours 6 Day Sojourn of South West Ireland tour. In the meantime, why not take the voyage by proxy and see just how tough it was on The Brendan Voyage .
“An Ordinary Man who did so many Extraordinary Things”
Staying in Kerry, we turn to Ireland’s greatest Antarctic explorer.
Despite having been part of no less than three Antarctic expeditions, including the ill-fated race to the pole by Scott, Tom Crean was relatively unknown outside of his own village and county for decades.
Thankfully, that has now been rectified and the ‘ordinary man who did so many extraordinary things’ is now rightly honoured with this bronze statue that captures his qualities. On our 6 day Sojourn of the South West, and ‘The Full Irish’ – 12 Day All-Ireland tour, we visit the South Pole Inn, the pub he established. It’s a place where the walls are festooned with photographs of many of his Antarctic adventures.