Skelligs Calling

Do mo bhean chéile Peig is dom chlann uilig

For my wife Peggy and my family

FOREWORD

What a pleasure it is to read this wonderful collection of memories and reflections, fact, folklore, and natural history, written by the magical and multifaceted Michael Kirby in the tenth decade of his life. Poet, painter, and fisherman, writer and raconteur, Irish speaker and prodigious reader, Kirby is a man of stately physical bearing and wide ranging mental activity. There is nothing too large or too small to be kept in the house of his mind, no square inch of the perceived world that has escaped his attention and his terrific curiosity. And his imagist’s eye and lyrical sensibility lends a natural cadence to the subjects he explores, almost as if his stories are sung rather than told.

Kirby is a man who both knows and loves his ‘place’; that rough patch of sea, sand, rock, fern and heather where he has lived his long and rich life. The place in question is Ballinskelligs, County Kerry, Ireland: the beautiful Ballinskelligs Bay, and the waters that move away from it, past Bolus Head, and out toward the mystical Skellig Islands. In this book he invites us to accompany him on a journey that will make us intimate with the region’s coastline and headlands, its islands and its beautifully named ancient sites.

But this is no ordinary voyage. Kirby has spent his life learning the rhythms of sea and coastal life, and he is eager to share his wisdom with the reader. We are encouraged to explore caves that can only be seen from the water, to listen to the various cries of birds – some who speak Irish – to come to know ‘Rónán’ the seal who guards the mouth of the harbour. We are told of night rainbows, of an open cottage door that is used as a sundial and of a thorn bush that is used as a chimney sweep. We are taught how to listen to the voices of the various strands, how to read the ever-changing sky, how to gut fish and how amazing surprises can spill from these guts. We are permitted entrance to the inner life of a poet and fisherman who is bidding farewell to his boat.

Michael Kirby is a man who understands the true value of life, marine life to be certain, but also life in the larger sense. He shows us in this marvellous book that everything that lives is indeed connected, that to fail to honour the smallest blade of grass is to fail to honour the earth itself and everything that walks, swims, grows or flies on, under, or around its surface. His is the view of the wise man who has cherished his life from its earliest days to the quieter times of advanced age, and has found great joy in engaging with his surroundings. We have much to learn from him.

Jane Urquhart

Stratford, Ontario, Canada

Coshcummeragh, Mastergeehy, County Kerry

PREFACE

During World War Two, the Morse-code signalling with lamps and flags became history. With the advent of the radio-telephone, light-keepers were able to communicate with passing ships, the life-saving station and their home base, also at Valentia. It was only a matter of dialling a code number and repeating ‘Skelligs Calling’ into the receiver. All lighthouses were equipped with radio- telephone and each had a different code number. I had the honour of knowing several wonderful men stationed on Skellig Michael. One was Michael Smith and another was Dick Coughlan. They were kindly and affable, devoid of any false vanity, tending the beacon’s warning flash to bring hope to many a weary mariner guiding his craft through the maelstrom of a violent sea or the serenity of calm.

My grandparents’ holding was close to that of the monastic settlement, built by the monks of Skelligs, who had been forced to flee from the plundering Northmen and pillaging Vikings and seek the security of the mainland. Thus the monastery gave its name to my townland, Baile ’n Sceilg – ‘Ballinskelligs’.

History and folklore instilled in me an ardent desire to learn more about the natural habitat and environs that the monks of Skellig Michael were forced to vacate. From my teenage years onwards I availed of every opportunity to sense the aura pervading this wild citadel of the seabound sanctuary. During the summer and autumn lobster-fishing season maybe I too heard Skelligs calling, eating crab claws and drinking mugs of tea while rocked in my chariot, listening to the raucous chorus of what we rudely term ‘wild creatures’.

Skelligs Calling

One fine soft morning

And Skelligs calling

Our boat sped fleetly

Across the bay,

With Father Dermot

On the thwart beside me

Our hearts were light

In the sunshine ray.

It was his intention

I now will mention

Christ’s loving Mass

On the rock to pray,

Our oarsman willing

And canvas filling,

Our craft was leaping

In the surging spray.

I. Fish, Fishing and the Life of a Fisherman

EARLY SEA MEMORIES

My father, John Kirby, kept a small boat down near the old ruined castle, which to this day stands on the beach in the town land of Ballinskelligs. The boat was built locally, of carvel design, from native timber, only twenty feet long overall, and five feet ten inches beam, propelled by oars and a small sail of old rough linen resembling sackcloth. The local builder swore by the Book that each and every boat built by his hands would contain three special qualities which he described in Irish as siúl, iompar agus cosaint, meaning ‘speed, cargo capacity and resistance to a rough sea’. Old Johnny Morty Galvin from Brácathrach was proud of his skill; his was the modus operandi, the knack and the know-how of his time. Therefore my father’s boat became our family’s most sacrosanct item of property, and small wonder, for it provided a goodly supply of prime fish, which helped us to survive within a lean and meagre period in our economy. It is neither my intention nor my wish to write a history bewailing the lot of those who survived the Great Famine, and who were yet only one step away from the coffin ships or morsels from a landlord’s table.

Now, up until my eighth birthday, I had not yet seen the boat. I was prohibited from straying too far from the scene of my delivery. It never occurred to me that I was being a good boy, and I had heard that the boy Jesus went down to Nazareth and was subject to his parents, to grow in wisdom and understanding, traits I confess I have never fully achieved. I had heard of the word ‘curfew’, which for me at any rate meant that I stay indoors, say my bedtime prayers and go to bed.

Then one day something utterly surprising happened. The curfew was lifted. A milestone, which to this day stands out clearly in my mind, my father saying, ‘We’re going fishing – tell Mam get your boots and jacket.’

I had only one pair of boots, rough boots, complete with heavy iron tips and hobnails. I was allowed to wear them once a week to attend Sunday Mass, and maybe some special occasion like the ‘Pattern’ day – the remainder of the week it was God’s leather to God’s weather. Oh, but this was a special occasion; my dad had lifted the curfew, he had invited me into his workplace, that vast kingdom below high-water mark where

They don’t plant taters

And don’t plant cotton.

That evening perhaps my father knew he was about to foster in me a lasting permanent love for my native surroundings, which in so many ways would influence my development and behaviour for years to come. This coupled with my eager drive to know more about the strange and fascinating secrets of nature, some of which are beyond our capacity to understand. This is the workplace that my dad introduced me to, that of a small-time fisherman. This is the kingdom I would feign have the temerity to understand, much less to write about. That fishing trip was the commencement of a way of life, which culminated in thirty years involvement with the sea.

I will only vouch for what I have observed from my own personal experience. The picture which I try to lay before you, is only an attempt at describing an immense, beautiful world of water and wave, towering cliff, crag and cave, sand and seashore, green islands, barren rock, pebble beaches and silver strands.

This is Neptune’s territory, Mannanán’s Kingdom, containing fin, fur and feather. Its many gardens show a manifold array of marine plants, each with diverse mineral content, most having curative healing powers beneficial to man and beast. A rock pool can become an Aladdin’s Cave, teeming with multi-species of life, from the microscopic organism to the pearl oyster.

It is my intention to describe as far as possible the habits and lifestyles of some different bird families, those beautiful creatures I became familiar with during my life as a fisherman.

Weather signs of other days, which clash with modern technology, make interesting reading; shellfish, marine plants and animals, are all part and parcel of a

Life on the ocean wave,

And a home on the rolling deep

Where scattered waters rave

And winds their revels keep.

I am not familiar with the Latin names of my marine species – my Latin happens to be Irish. To all you good people, both ornithologists and scientists, I crave your pardon. If I have become a fly in your ointment, please let me off the hook.

Sea Tears

Why have I forgotten?

Things that dreams

Are made from

A white sail

The harbour lights

The little footprints

On the sands

Were mine.

Little white waves

Played chase with me,

Laughing, splashing,

Ebbing and flowing,

Catching up with me

Drowning my legs

Leaving me

Sighing, gasping, exhausted.

My thoughts now

Like a troubled ocean

The tempest of life

Make dim the harbour lights,

Her wild horses

Beat thunder in my ears,

Frothing, fuming, filling

Deep caverns

Of my ageing years.

Pounding, surging, swirling,

Playing chase once more,

Washing the memory

Of little footprints

With her salty tears.

A FISHERMAN LOVES HIS BOAT

If I write about birds, rocks, sea, sharks and seaweed, I feel I must also write about boats. Great ships have foundered and small boats have remained afloat. A fisherman loves his boat; he knows exactly what she is capable of in a rough seaway. Jim, our skipper, was like that. I would often hear him speak in low tones when taking her through a high breaking sea where green water could be seen towering at a level with her lifting bow. He would miraculously avoid the menacing hillock of water that seemed poised to crash aboard. A sudden flick of the helm would ‘knock her away’ to let the breaking sea pass harmlessly by starboard or port quarter. This trick might be repeated again and again until we entered sheltered waters.

On occasions such as this I often heard him give instructions to the helmsman. If he saw an extra dangerous sea he would say, ‘Watch out for that one!’ ‘Turn her away quickly, beautiful!’ ‘Bring her up again!’ ‘Split the weather in the eye!’ He would praise the boat that would climb and pull steadily in a heavy seaway: ‘Over it old girl’. On the other hand he would call a sluggish boat a ‘dirty bitch’. The boat is always feminine. Another type of boat would be referred to as ‘a giddy little whore without enough gut’, gut meaning width or beam. The jargon of a fisherman can be excessively salty at its best and at its worst unsuitable for the cloister or the early Victorian drawing-room.

Boats broad on the transom, and feminine-breasted lobster boats from Brest and Saint Malo, fished for crayfish off the Kerry coast. On board, wooden-clogged Breton sailors drank cask-fulls of dark, sour claret wine with every meal.

An old schooner from Brest called Sea Thrift came monthly to the South Kerry coast to buy and collect lobsters and crayfish for the French market. I loved to go on board, if only to smell the Stockholm tar and the rich perfume of the ships that pass in the night. We called her captain Mataí Leathchoise. He wore a yellow, wooden peg-leg stump from the knee, complete with the ferrule and leather pad for use on deck. It was fascinating to watch this big middle-aged man stomp all over a slippery, rolling deck, as agile as a cat without ever a slip. He used a more modern artificial limb for special occasions when going ashore. A neighbour of mine, Michael Curran, ‘Old Curran’ as we called him, came of old fishing stock and always sold his lobsters to Mataí Peg-Leg. Michael often arrived late only to be berated by Captain Mataí, who would say, ‘Why are you always coming aboard when I’m just about to turn in? I will be heaving my anchor at dawn. I’m an ordinary human who needs eight hours sleep.’ Old Curran never made excuses or answered back, only hung his head and remained silent, whereupon the Frenchman would feel a little sorry and proffer him a jigger of cognac when paying him. His parting remark was, ‘Do try and come a little earlier next time, Michael.’ Curran would sing the praises of Captain Mataí na Leathchoise as a gentleman, duine galánta.

Michael’s punt was only twelve feet long, carvel built, having only one seat amidships and one stern seat. It was known as the Tar Pot, because of annual applications of boiling tar over the years. Old Curran was an expert swimmer. In his declining years he never ventured far from the harbour reefs owing to his frail craft. He carried his lobster pots, eight at a time, and always had a bucket for bailing. He would say, ‘I’m always ready to abandon my ship.’ One day his words were put to the test. The Tar Pot sprang a leak close to Horse Island. Michael stuffed his jacket into the gaping hole, jettisoning all his lobster gear, and rowing as he never rowed in his life, pausing only momentarily to ply the bucket. He succeeded in staying afloat until finally he beached his stricken vessel on the shingle of Horse Island, where he was well-received by the Fitzgerald family, who instantly set to and repaired the damaged plank.

The great craft was once more declared seaworthy and in the words of the poet, ‘Her timbers yet are sound, and she shall float again.’ Old Curran put to sea once more on the evening tide, bringing to mind Tennyson’s beautiful poem:

Sunset and the evening star,

And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar

When I put out to sea.

Twilight and evening bell

And after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell,

When I embark.

Many British steam trawlers found anchorage in Ballinskelligs Bay. It was a very convenient base for shelter owing