Me and my camera in someone else’s town, my an daingean, my dingle
to see the full gallery please click here
Dingle or as its called in Ireland, An Daingean is at the end of the most western peninsula of the Emerald Isle with nothing but the Atlantic ocean for a neighbour. Its remoteness has meant it has existed largely in isolation and as a result is probably the closest you can get to time travel without getting in a Delorean. It feels largely unaffected by modernity and the people that live there seem to have a genuinely close community, a relatively rare thing these days.
It is strangely alluring and a perfect antidote to 21st century city living. Many have come here and fallen in love with the place and then never left, including a dolphin named Fungy who has lived in the bay for decades. There is a small possibility he might just have an appalling sense of direction and can’t find his way back out to the ocean but I did actually see him whilst there and he was repeatedly leaping out of the water to interact with a man in a boat and he looked pretty happy…although saying that dolphins always look like they’re smiling so kinda difficult to tell really. I mean, how would you know a dolphin was depressed when their face is designed to show the opposite? I dolphin digress…this really has nothing to do with the photographs I have been showing you this week.
Every year they stage a procession on St. Stephens Day aka Boxing Day aka The Wren which is a pagan festival dating back centuries. Everyone gets kitted out in costumes and masks and I have to say it is a little bit creepy. There is a darker tone to it than it just being a bit of dress up. It feels like you are in the Wicker Man (the original not the laughable Nic Cage version) only they don’t actually set fire to anyone, not as far as I’m aware anyway…