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MAGAN'S WORLD:THE POET AND novelist Henry Shukman described the Grand Canyon recently in the New York Timesas "a truly national monument, analogous to the Lake District in England in its centrality to the nation's psyche. It's something all Americans share, and can take pride in".

Bob Dylan said something similar in his Last Thoughts on Woodie Guthrie: "You'll find God in the church of your choice / You'll find Woody Guthrie in Brooklyn State Hospital / And though it's only my opinion / I may be right or wrong / You'll find them both / In the Grand Canyon / At sundown. "Which prompts a question: what is Ireland's equivalent? Is there one location where our soul resides, that corresponds to the comment by the American poet Carl Sandburg that "each man sees himself in the Grand Canyon"?