Inishmore

That's the country bit that you need to know.

A trip to Inishmore in 1982 changed our next guest's life forever.

A priest at the time, he was becoming increasingly disillusioned with the Catholic Church.

Reinvention beckoned, and he became a Celtic monk, embracing a new approach to life and spirituality, what he calls The Celtic Way, which is also the title of his book, a blend of memoir, myth, and scholarship as well.

Yeah.

[laughs]

Uh, Inishmore, when was this? When do you go to Inishmore?

Well, you see, a- after my ordination, all that sort of enjoyable life, working in the local community and wearing my hair long and all that, [laughs] it all changed, and I got back into a soutane to teach in a school.

And at the top.

Inishmore, the big Aran Island, 820.

Aranmore and Donegal, 478.

Inishere, 343.

Inishbofen has three hotels and a hostel, and the activity list is exactly what you'd expect.

Scuba diving, walking, cycling, horse riding, sailing, kayaking, angling.

The Aran Islands, Inishmore, Cape Clear, all tourism-driven.

It's the main employer on the islands a ferry can reach.

He makes a stop near where he grew up on an island off the western coast of Ireland called the Aran Islands.

And yes, Inishmore, the island from the movie, The Banshees of Inisherin with Colin Farrell, is one of the Aran Islands.

While there, three other monks from Brendan's old abbey approach him and request to join him on their journey.

Brendan agrees, however, tells them through some prophecy that only one of them will actually enjoy the journey, with two of them having their journey end in their deaths, and with one of those two, something much, much worse.

You've got your two and a half hours to Galway.

And then from Galway out to Inishmore is another 45 minutes.

You've got two and a half to three hours on the island, another 45 minutes back to Galway, and then your two and a half hours back to Athlone.

So you've got an 11 or 12 hour day very easily there.

And there's a separate report that the number of cars accessing Dublin's city centre during morning rush hour has fallen to its lowest level on record, with commuters increasingly opting to make journeys on public transport.

The Irish Sun reports that a litter of four kittens found abandoned in a ditch on Inishmore Island are being nursed back to health.

They were deemed too unwell to wait for the ferry, so Air Arran flew the young cats to the mainland free of charge.

I have been abandoned is the headline in the Irish Daily Mirror.

And I know that sounds like a thing to say, you know, we're trying to win the crowd out.

But I got married in Inishmore, the Aran Islands.

And we had a...

Why did you pick Inishmore? So I have a friend of mine, Mick Deeby, and his mother is Marianne Fitz and she's from the Aran Islands, from Inishmore.

And we served our time together, actually.

Sorry, we were in college together, in Bolton Street together.

And the Doolin boat was much slower and it's much bumpier.

And you'd go to each of the islands.

And the first question is, have you been there and what was your experience? I've been there twice.

My first experience was Inishmore.

A few years ago, we had a number of couples, if you want to say, wives and husbands.

And we tracked across to Inishmore and we did Den Angus and we did The Worm.

And it was a fantastic trip, just absolutely beautiful.

And the weather was great.

Ella, I've never been to London yet, but I did part of my student teaching at a school just south of Dublin.

I did manage to make a trip to Galway and Innismore and Edinburgh and Paris.

I just love Ireland and Scotland.

My time there was from January to March.

When we went to Innismore, we couldn't find the owner of the hostel we had booked.

When we finally did, it was so cold that we left for another hostel a very cold walk away.

It was cold there, too, but they at least had a fire going in the fireplace, and that was almost 20 years ago now, but it is so fun to reminisce.

I believe that.

Like we were having the chat to me in books about Inishmore.

Yeah,

all the old time.

betting on yourself as well because he was equating it to even just the lighting that you had for your show that he was supporting that he was like what's all this for and you were like growth mentality

growth mentality yeah I have a production of my show so there's lights disco ball and a song oh yeah and at the beginning I was like no I don't want it I don't want it and then I did it and I was like this is amazing it was great it's so much fun from the start of the show it makes it so much more of a vibe it

is a great way of thinking because especially in places like Inishmore I think there's a lot of people in Inishmore who are like oh well that's it this is it this is life

and also if you're listen whatever makes you happy but I just love I'm like why not let's try like I really want to do acting now and I just got rejected again from a show and they were like oh she was in the conversation but didn't work out and I'm like okay whatever but keep going