March 22, 2017 Eddie Shanahan

Fallen off maps

Irish towns isolated during the celtic tiger. Emigration blights the Irish countryside.

You find them, these forgotten country towns, more by accident than design. It is as if they had fallen off maps, places for passing through rather than going to.

”forgotten country towns… draped in a patina of grey stone and flaking paint…forgotten… for better climes and new lives…”

Frozen in time, draped in a patina of grey stone and flaking paint, their grimy windows blind any sign of life.

Abandoned in times of austerity for better climes and new lives, change means nothing here except decay. The tumbled down buildings sit faded and askew on crooked streets, a mossy spire prods the sky where rain is ever threatening if not ever present. A murky river channels muddy waters and cruel bone chilling winds that dull adventure.

And yet these towns can catch you out, make you smile, surprise you amidst their unkempt lanes and weedy misery. A cluster of chairs painted with a hippie sensibility declares the survival of wit and humanity.