Above: The monastery of Skellig Michael established at the edge of the known world in the 6th century is unique on Earth. “I tell you the thing does not belong to any world that you and I have lived and worked in: it is part of our dream world.” George Bernard Shaw. 1910. Photo: Peter Cox.
The Background
Con Moriarty’s Hidden Ireland Tours began back in 1986 when Marion “Binky” Oswalt from the US and Con Moriarty from Ireland founded a small travel company aimed at providing a limited number of travellers with an opportunity to experience the incredible environment in which Con grew up and to which he shared a powerful connection.
From its outset it was a lot of fun, fuelled by a passionate love of place and a desire to share it with open souls. Guests played and laughed and learned before returning home as friends, with many returning again and again and whispering of this hidden Ireland to others.
Enduring friendships have been a special blessing throughout this time that has seen the company grow just a little, guided by its founding vision and limited by the simple fact that the hidden, authentic aspects of Ireland are a gift never to be developed beyond its capacity.
2020/2021
Today as the world deals with Covid-19, a pandemic that has shattered many lives, spectacularly impacted economies, and disrupted travel, 2020 should have been our 34th season of operation – has become an enforced sabbatical.
It has of course brought its own gifts, among them time to reflect and as we look ahead to 2021 and beyond, we are mindful of the changes that will emanate from this experience. In this time of enforced restrictions, all of us whose lives have been enriched by wanderings in other lands dream of travelling again to favourite and new places with perhaps a new heightend sense of taking nothing for granted. And as await brighter days, we dream of resuming our roles as planners and hosts to those called to Ireland and whose paths we might cross.
Hidden Ireland Tours is made up of a team of eclectic individuals bound together by a shared passion for sharing their Ireland with special guests. Walking and hiking remains at our core (- getting outside at any level of activity is simply the best way for the essence of Ireland to enter the soul!) – but today we are also golfers and bikers, gardeners and naturalists, climbers and kayakers, historians and genealogists, archaeologists and storytellers.
If you and your family or friends have ever considered visiting this magical place, we invite you to reach out and explore what might emerge. For now however, stay safe
Postscript
By Seamus Heaney
And some time make the time to drive out west
Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore,
In September or October, when the wind
And the light are working off each other
So that the ocean on one side is wild
With foam and glitter, and inland among stones
The surface of a slate-grey lake is lit
By the earthed lightning of a flock of swans,
Their feathers roughed and ruffling, white on white,
Their fully grown headstrong-looking heads
Tucked or cresting or busy underwater.
Useless to think you’ll park and capture it
More thoroughly.
You are neither here nor there,
A hurry through which known and strange things pass
As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways
And catch the heart off guard and blow it open.
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