Sir, – I’ve returned to Ireland after 10 years living as a musician in Berlin. Moving to the country, I was prepared for the meagre offerings of public transport available, but only when my film was accepted to be shown at Roscommon Film Festival have I come to realise how abysmal our public transport offerings truly are.
On a Saturday night, if one would want to journey to the capital of our country from a town that has a train station, say, after attending a film festival in said Metropolis, the last bus available is 6:30pm and last train is 7pm.
Now, this may seem normal to people who’ve lived in Ireland their whole lives. But as a touring musician in Germany I was able to get from the most remote, tiniest of towns to any other part of the country 24 hours a day, seven days a week – including public holidays and Christmas, for that matter.
I once played a German music festival whose train stop was a literal field. How can a country so flooded with cultural hotspots, tucked away in nooks and crannies of the country like Dingle and west Cork, be so cut off from each other? And have no possibilities for return, if you ever manage to get there in the first place?
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Sipping on a Guinness in Ennis yesterday, my attention fell on an old sign beside my table. It stated: “Enjoy the Western Rails – Journey from Kilkee, Milltown Malbay to Ennistymon.”
If only. How have we gone so wrong? And on an island famous for its craic and ceol, how in God’s name is one to go anywhere other than their local to find any? And if it’s not walking distance, how in God’s name will you get back, if you want to sample a Guinness while you’re there? – Yours, etc,
CONOR KILKELLY,
Kilrush,
Co Clare.
