Win a free weekend in West Cork in May 2005!

[kieran]

Hi all

Fancy a free weekend in West Cork on May 21st and 22nd 2005?

Well, that is what is on offer to all registered website members, and we have more than one prize to give away...

Julia Bird and Mike Hegarty, both keen sea anglers, have established a specialist guesthouse outside Bantry in scenic West Cork. To mark this they have offered us weekend packages for the dates listed. These dates should give high water at around 6 am/pm. "A flooding tide gives the best fishing around here and gives opportunity for 'socializing' in the evenings".

You and a friend can stay for two nights, full B&B at the Carbery Guest Lodge, Brahalish, Durrus, Nr Bantry, Co. Cork , by entering your best story of sea fishing in the Kerry area. The competition will close two weeks ahead of the dates listed, i.e. Sunday 8th May 2005. You can post your entries onto this thread. NB: the judges decision will be final.

Conditions:

1. The prize is offered in good faith.
2. There is no cash or other alternative.
3. All entrants must be registered on http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org.
4. The dates advertised are fixed and no alternative is possible.
5. Each prize as stated is one (1) double room with ensuite/private bathroom and full breakfast.
6. Evening meals if required are extra at our standard tariff.
7. Prize winners must confirm their acceptance by telecom or e-mail at least one (1) week before arrival.
8. Prizes are not transferable to non-SAI members. SAI members must be registered before closing date of the competition.

Thanks and good luck!

[url]http://www.sea-angling-ireland.org/marks/cork/carbery_cottage_bantry.jpg[/url]

Last edited by kieran on Wed Jul 06, 2005 11:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Check out web site :www.carbery-cottage-guest-lodge.net

Suggest: your requests or suggestions

The Offer "Prize is still there!!!" for the same dates .

mike hegarty

wouldn't mind winning but have never been fishing in kerry so don't have any stories. Pity.

Make one up!!!

After all the replies to the "Funniest thing I ever saw whilst I was fishing", how sad that nobody can tell a little white lie like " It happened whilst I was fishing in Kerry!" Come on lads, get it together, these guys are offering a top prize and all you've got to do is use your imagination! And before you all ask, I'm not allowed to play :-(

Me and my mate are fishing in a boat under a bridge - <b>in Kerry.</b> :D

He looks up and sees a funeral procession starting across the bridge.

He stands up, takes off his cap, and bows his head.

The procession crosses the bridge and he puts on his cap, picks up his rod and reel, and continues fishing.

I says, "That was touching. I didn't know you had it in you."

He responds, "Well, I guess it was the thing to do - after all, I was married to her for 40 years."

Do I win ?

If you'd registered on site you probably would have!

Consolation prize may be in order!!!!!

rgds

mike hegarty

Carbery Cottage.

Hi Mike , I am a registered user, member of SAC. I didnt log in as I dont expect a modified joke to win, just wrote it for the craic - though if no one else enters, I'll gladly accept !

was fishing one fine evening on the rock *bang* in goes my rod i look up and say stupid seagull i look down and see my rod floating in the water im paniking what do i do???? help so i climbed down the sheer rock face bout 20feet picked up my rod aand tripod passed my tripod to my frien started to reel my line in no im snagged i said just kept reeling and reelin still thinking im snagged but to my amazement would you no a 3.75 lb cod

THIS STORY IS TRUE

was fishing one fine evening on the rock *bang* in goes my rod INTO THE WATER i look up and say stupid seagull i look down and see my rod floating in the water im paniking what do i do???? help so i climbed down the sheer rock face bout 20feet picked up my rod aand tripod passed my tripod to my frien started to reel my line in no im snagged i said just kept reeling and reelin still thinking im snagged but to my amazement would you no a 3.75 lb cod

THIS STORY IS TRUE

Hey Damien and "Do I Win", glad to see thinks are taking off now. Don't worry about me, I'm no competition as it's a bit too far to come. I'm just here to make the numbers up and see if I can win the longest boring story competition. :) Here's my entry and I think there's going to be a rush now that closing date is this week-end.:-


I’ve been lucky enough to holiday near some of the West Coast islands and if you get a chance, try fishing in some of the more remote spots. It’s great country, you are sure to enjoy your visit and just maybe catch a specimen. To the South, Cape Clear Island gave me a splendid Wrasse. Even my vegetarian daughter-in–law had to agree was a real beauty, whilst Abbey Island on the end of the Ring of Kerry peninsula yielded some cracking pollack. At the end of the Beara peninsula is Dursey Island with the luxury of a cable car (but I believe I may have exaggerated the luxury), so access is easy and the fish are huge, or so I’m told. But my favourite has to be The Great Blasket Island.


Many years ago I was given “The Islandman”, a book written by a man called Tomás O Crohan, born in 1856, about his life on the Great Blasket, the tiny island at the end of the Dingle Peninsula. It is a fascinating book of life during the 19th century, a perilous life scratching a living from the poor soil, but with a sea often full of fish if you dared to go out in a currach. There were days when they caught so many they could hardly get back to the tiny harbour. Once they accidentally netted a whale, whose liver gave enough oil to keep their houses lit for 5 years.

The tales in the book stayed with me and around 20 years later I found myself with my family treading the steps up from the harbour to a now deserted island, having been landed by the ferry from Dunquin. The ruins of the houses are still there but now the quiet is overpowering. It is a visit I would heartily recommend, preferably after reading the old stories. There are plenty of them, as several of the islanders competed to become best sellers, leaving an invaluable record of a life long gone.

I had my spinning rod in hand but felt I should first make a visit to the beach where young Tomâs fought a life or death battle with a large seal. He won, but with a huge lump bitten from his leg. How it was mended is another story, but he survived to live to the age of 81 years. Access down to the beach proved impossible so we turned back and made for the rocky headland that faces Slea Head. The water was clear and a few casts later a fine pollack of over 5lb was hooked. However the evil treble on the German sprat had done some serious damage so with some regret it went to the pot that night. Delicious! We carried on after changing the trebles for a single and we caught several more, returning them back to the sea. Tomás would have called us fools but times change. They were all a good size and it was with much reluctance we headed back to the harbour to catch the ferry back.

The trip back was uneventful but there was a quietness amongst the passengers that lasted the whole journey back to the mainland. Maybe we were all too tired to speak or perhaps the magic of the Blaskets had affected us. In much earlier times I think it must have also affected the many scholars from as far away as Norway who had encouraged the islanders all those years ago to write down their stories in their native tongue and in that way made a great contribution to preserving the Gaelic language. So, message to all tourists, if you are lost and cannot understand the road signs on the Dingle Peninsula, now you know who to thank! But don’t let that small problem stop you visiting this magical island.

Tim

Great Post Tim, (not being Biased here)What was the name of the book, sounds like a great read!!

Johnnyf.

My favourites in order of preference:-

1/ The Islandman by Tomás O Crohan

2/ Twenty Years A Growing by Maurice O’Sullivan

3/ Peig; The Autobiography of Peig Sayers of the Great Blasket Island

Peig wrote another book called “An Old Woman's Reflections” but I can’t say I enjoyed it. I've just had to look up some stuff on Google to get the spelling right and I came across this:- An Old Woman's Reflections It was a compulsory item on the Irish Leaving Certificate examination up until 1998 as a part of an attempt to revive the dying native language of Ireland. It has been accused of scarring a whole generation of young Irish people and entrenching them in a philosophy of victimhood and isolation. So you’d better not read that one!! :)

Tomás is my favourite and he says at the end of his book “I tried to capture the temperament of the people who were around me, so that an account of us would be left after us, because our like will not be there again”

Anyone else out there find The Blaskets interesting or is it just a tourist thing?

Tim

Good God. :roll: :roll: :roll: .I thought that I had escaped from peig 15 years ago.

Good God. :roll: :roll: :roll: .I thought that I had escaped from peig 15 years ago.

There's no escape from Peig :lol:
Shouldn't put you off reading Tomás O Crohan though. No stories about the faeries or old legends, mostly just about a man catching fish and drinking. (sounds good to me)
Tim

Hey Tim
I have to be honest, I too was one of the many frightened mass schoolers, that thought I left 'Peig' happily behind me, however I would like to read the others, are they in English, as I have also left my lingual tongue with school also? :oops: :oops:

That's a shame that force-fed Peig has done so much damage, I'm sure she wouldn't have wanted it.

"The Islandman" is still available, as is "Twenty Years A-Growing", both in English. You can get them second-hand on Amazon books for very little money and I can recommend it as I've just got a second-hand fishing book that was as good as new when it turned up.
Tim

Peig Sayers spent her last years in Dingle hospital. On holiday last year I spoke to a lady, originally from Dingle but now living near Galway with her family, whose mother was in the same hospital ward as Peig. Apparently her many visitors were in the habit of bringing her a bottle of the black stuff. She even mentions her fondess for the porter in her book. Anyway by the time they were ready to put their heads down the bold Peig would be...., "ar meisce, mar a dheirfá", or for our visitors, drunk! Roaring and rámeishing she would keep the ward awake all night. She wasn't the most popular lady!


Does this qualify me for two days west along?