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ANOTHER LIFE:THERE’S A TYPE of ray, Séamus Mac an Iomaire told us in The Shores of Connemara, “that’s called the scolabord tintrí (flashing skate), but it doesn’t wander in much from the big deep, as that place happens to be very dark at times. Nature has bestowed on it the capability of making its way through the forests of sea rods that are in the valleys be- tween the high arches, as there is light shining from its eyes that shows it the way ahead," writes MICHAEL VINEY

I’ve been enjoying a skate’s-eye view, so to speak, of the sandy valleys in Co Kerry’s Kenmare Bay – twin torches zooming along at midnight through a swirl of plankton and kelp fronds to dazzle a busy, nocturnal traffic of spider crabs, squat lobsters (pink and blue), snake pipefish, an ambulatory gurnard with emerald eyes, an attentive John Dory trailing a sunburst of fins. Once, a mysterious echo of moans and grunts spoke of a whale of some sort, out there where it happens to be very dark at times.