gordon stokes photography

An Tiaracht

An Tiaracht means "westerly" in gaelic, and the name is apt because it is the most westerly part of Europe. About 8 miles off the end of the Dingle peninsula and a few miles beyond the Blasket Isles it rises to 200 metres (over 600 ft). From the mainland it appears pyramidical, but in fact is longer in the East West direction and has a lighthouse at the far end on a separate hill which is the little pyramid on the right in these photos





There's something 'edge of the world' like about looking towards An Tiaracht. It accentuates the fact that there's nothing else for 3000 miles besides sea, sea, ... and more sea ...

There's an idea all over the west of Ireland of "next parish, New York" or "next village, Boston" because of the large numbers who left Ireland for the USA during and after the potato famine. The Blasket Isles Centre has a wonderful black and white photo of the 1930s New York skyline superimposed over a picture towards The Blasket Isles. I personally reckon that photo diminishes the scale of An Tearacht as New York would have to be so much smaller for the perspective to be right (as well as out of sight over the horizon).

So I've done my own using a picture of New York from the Staten Island ferry, with a persective that would imply New York being about 30 miles away. Of course its really about 3000 miles to New York, so it would be about 100 times smaller if the earth was flat. And you'd have to look round a corner to see New York from this angle, but maybe I'm getting a bit pedantic.

 

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© Gordon Stokes, 2014