SO, ARE WE GETTING tougher? Is the weather getting softer? Or is it just that weatherproof clothing is getting, well, just more weatherproof? Because it seems that there have never been more people getting outdoors in Ireland. And getting outdoors in extreme ways, and year round.
There’s hillwalking, sure, and given the right kit that’s pleasant enough in all weathers. With a good pair of boots, breathable, rain-repelling outerwear and layered clothing, a few wintry miles over the hills, a stop out of the wind for a cheese sanger and a Thermos of tea before heading home is a bit of fun.
But on January 13th, a bunch of people set off at midnight on the Art O’Neill Challenge, endeavouring to run and march the 55km from Dublin Castle to Glenmalure. Cast your mind back and you’ll remember it was pretty nippy that night. The odds are that you, like me, were tucked up warmly in bed as the O’Neillers tramped their way out of the dark, frosty city and saw in the cold dawn as they climbed high into the Wicklow Mountains. But with nearly 500 participants, there’s a good chance that at least some of you reading this would have been out there actually doing the trip.
A weather forecast for a few days of winter gales pushing big Atlantic swells onto the west coast followed by cold, still weather has many people turning up the heating a degree or two, and enjoying the pleasures of the great indoors. But plenty of other folk will be hollering “Surf’s up!”, stripping down to their neoprene suits and splashing their way out to the break. The most extreme of extreme surfers turn into amateur oceanographers using science to sleuth down tsunami-sized waves thrown up by off-shore, undersea reefs such as Prowlers and Aileen’s, just so they can be jet ski-towed out and catapulted into thundering cliffs of water with 15-metre faces. For fun.
Adventure racing. Mountain biking. Kayaking. Climbing. Kite surfing. Ireland is activity mad. I’m still wondering why, now of all times? Some self-flagellation maybe, after the years of decadence? An escape from the claustrophobic offices and virtual worlds many of us spend more and more time in? Those Government campaigns to persuade us to lead healthier lives and take more exercise having an effect? Fashion? Or perhaps it’s just the realisation that Ireland is one of the best countries for outdoor – and in-water – stuff.
The latter is what the folk at Discover Ireland are betting on. They’re busily promoting the big seas, and wild coastline, and mountainy bogs, and off-road bike trails and all the activities foreign tourists can do. And it’s working. Which means it’s a smart way to sell Ireland, because more visitors are coming for adventure pursuits. Which in turn is smart of the visitors, because they’re one of the things we’re best at.
But there’s still the weather, of course.
There's an old Swedish rhyme: Det finns inget dåligt väder, bara dåliga kläder. It translates as: There's no bad weather, just the wrong clothing. Actually Norwegians, and many more peoples in other languages claim some version of this saying as their own pearl of wisdom, possibly indicating that "no bad weather, just bad clothing" is some kind of universal truth. Get the right kit on and you can laugh in the face of rain, snow, wind and – rare in Ireland, it's true – broiling heat.
But it’s not just about the clothing. I think what we’ve discovered in Ireland is that good equipment can protect you from the weather, but it’s the actually heading outdoors to do something active that makes us all weatherproof.