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| Cottage on Inis Mór. Photo by Robert J. Higgins |
The fifth installment of the
Orphans and Inmates series
takes our characters, both past and present, back to Ireland. If you are familiar with the story, the
Sloane family made their way to Buffalo, New York from Inis Mór, the largest of
the Aran Islands, off the west coast of Ireland. The three islands that make up Aran, Inis
Oírr, Inis Meáin, and Inis Mór are a microcosm of traditional Gaelic culture
not found elsewhere in the country. I
was moved by the haunting images of the islands I had seen in the book
Images of Aran: Photographs by Father Brown, 1925 & 1938, By E.E. O'Donnell. After
a bit of research, I thought Inis Mór was a great place for my characters to
start their journey. Until now, I had written very little about the small island. It was
mentioned in
Orphans and Inmates as the birth place of the Sloane sisters, with some brief references to what their lives were like there. In the fifth book of the series, a good portion of the story will take place there. More
research was needed.
I was able to talk
my husband into a brief trip to Ireland in May so that I could visit Inis Mór
and get a feel for what life was like there.
As indie authors, our research budgets are often tight and may not
include travel, particularly to another country. Having said that, my advice to my friends and
colleagues is: Go there anyway! Go where your story takes place, however you
can get there. It is worth the time, the
expense and the sacrifice of whatever you had to pass up to get there.
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Inis Mór. Photo by Robert J. Higgins
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There is no better way to get a feel for how your characters
will behave in any particular setting than going there yourself. From the minute our ferry left the dock at
Doolin, I knew my decision to scrape and save, put off roof repairs and skimp
on groceries, had been worth it. As we
moved out on the Wild Atlantic, we were tossed about like a beach ball,
although the vessel was substantial and held over fifty people. Passengers sat in their seats, green in the
gills and white knuckles clenched on the benches in front of them. My mind went back to the nineteenth century,
and to the fishermen of Aran. Those
brave men made their living using only their currachs, small wood frame boats covered
by cow hides. Such boats were keel-less
and rudder-less, relying on two to four men with narrow oars to negotiate the
same choppy seas. The necessity to feed
their families required that these men make such a treacherous journey often. My characters speak of the harsh life on the
islands, now I have a sense of just how difficult it could have been.
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| Climbing the road to the ruins of Dún
Árainn. Photo by Robert Higgins |
Inis Mór is a bit less than twelve square miles, with a
population of about 900 people. We could
not bring a car on the island, but there were a few options for exploring the area. There were bicycles for rent but we chose a horse drawn cart which had the advantage of a native tour
guide. We also spent time walking
on some of the narrower and steeper roads.
These methods of transportation gave me the opportunity to move around
the island at the same pace that my characters from the nineteenth century
would have and to get a feel for the clip clop of hooves on hard packed earthen
roads (although some of them were paved).
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| Our guide, Andy, and Johnny Cash. Photo by Robert J. Higgins |
Exploring on foot also gave me the opportunity to explore
the flora and fauna of the island up close.
In addition to the purple clover, forget-me-nots, butter cups and ferns,
there was bleeding heart, yarrow, hawthorn, and numerous other plants I’m in
the process of trying to identify, cascading down the stone walls, dotting the
pastures, or creeping around fallen headstones.
There were beautiful Connemara ponies for riding, sturdy Tinker’s horses
for work, shaggy donkeys who stood in judgement as we passed by, and a rather
large herd of goats. Surprisingly there
were few sheep and even fewer dogs to be seen.
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| Photo by Robert J. Higgins |
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| Photo by Robert J. Higgins |
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| Photo by Robert J. Higgins |
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| Photo by Rosanne L. Higgins |
The most important part of the trip for me was being able to
see so much of the rugged landscape.
Essentially, Inis Mór is a giant rock protruding out of the sea. Stone ruins speak to centuries of occupation,
yet give the feel of little cultural change over time. There were/are no wooded areas, and the few
trees have been contorted by the harsh wind. Every field on the island was man
made. That was something I had read, but did not appreciate until I saw it for
myself. When you look across the
landscape at the hundreds of stone walls that divide up each pasture and
realize that each wall is made from the limestone that was dug out of the earth
by hand and each field was created by hauling in crushed rock, sand, seaweed
and whatever else would support the growth of rye grass, cabbages, carrots and
potatoes, it is awe inspiring. Our guide
described it as slave labor, yet each man was working to make a small part of
the island his own. Being able to
experience this inhospitable landscape gave me a sense of the true grit my
characters possessed. That same grit
allowed three orphaned children to survive the journey to America and months in
the almshouse. It would serve them well
as they met the challenges that life in the burgeoning city of Buffalo set
before them and will help them in this next book to untangle the secrets of
their past.
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| Photo by Robert J. Higgins |
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| Photo by Robert J. Higgins |
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| Dún Árainn. Photo by Robert J. Higgins |
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| Photo by Robert J. Higgins |
