The Jackie Clarke Exhibit and Enniscrone Beach

One of our main goals of heading up to Mayo was to see the Jackie Clarke Exhibit.

As it turns out we were infinitely lucky with the weather -- an entire week of heat and sun. Apparently Mayo is the worst of Irish weather and they are lucky to have two weeks like the one we had THE ENTIRE YEAR! Unbelievable.

So we left Westport and the gorgeous beaches of Achill Island (although we really considered heading back one more time to see Keem Beach but decided against it) for Ballina.

Once in town we found a gorgeous hotel (the Ice House) on the banks of the River Moy, left the kids at home to relax a bit and headed into town to see the museum.

I first heard about the Jackie Clark Exhibit when my aunt Bev sent me a link to the New York Times article about it. The previous link was the actual article, but here is a link to a slideshow of stuff in the exhibit. And here is a Youtube program about Jackie Clarke.

Jackie Clarke started collecting newspaper articles at age 13 about all-things Irleand, but particularly as related to Irish independence as well as local history and put them into a notebook. This collection grew and grew. Eventually, the owner of a prominent salmon shop in Ballina, he was able to get his hands on some incredible historical relics including the top of a hat worn by the 1798 revolutionary Wolf Tone and an original copy of the 1916 Easter Proclamation. According to the Times, the collection is an astounding treasure of more than 100,000 items that provide an intimate retelling of Ireland’s long struggle to free itself of English rule. Fragile maps and rare newspapers, political posters and editorial cartoons, books, diaries, photographs, films, and even a scrapbook that Clarke began as a boy.    

And:
      

“It’s history from the below,” Ms. Kinealy said. “And for each of the major watershed moments in Irish history Jackie Clarke has amassed an amazing collection of records.”

To understand Jackie Clarke you must first understand County Mayo, in the west of Ireland. It is a landscape both inviting and forbidding, one of serene greens and rocky grays, megalithic tombs and medieval abbeys, famine roads, mystical mountains and the violent sea — all combining to assert the lingering presence of what has come before. 

      

“You’re so close to the past all the time,” Ms. McCoole said. 

      

This is where, in the 17th century, the ruthless Oliver Cromwell banished the Irish families he forced from better land in the east and south. Where, at the close of the 18th century, French forces joined Irish patriots like Wolfe Tone in the valiant but ill-fated rebellion known as the Year of the French. Where, in the 19th century, the potato famine and the decades of high emigration that followed reduced the county population by two-thirds, to about 115,000. And where, in the 20th century, local people figured in rebellion, civil war and the eventual formation of a republic.

The museum was amazing. It was housed in a gorgeous old bank and organized to tell the story of Irish Independence from 1600 on using documents, letters, posters and newspapers. Fascinating.

After the museum we had continued on our quest to enter the sea every day so we headed up to Enniscrone beach sandy beach.

As we had gotten used to in the West of Ireland, it was lovely. And, to our great surprise, it was much warmer than the other beaches. Compared to around 50 F, we suspect this one might have been 60 F! The waves were not as fierce as at Keel Beach on Achill, but they were relentless.