St Brendan the Navigator ...

... and friend.
Into Bantry this morning. It's Heritage Week here and we were attending a talk on some early photographs of Bantry by Colum who has just written a book on Bantry through the ages. It's a huge tome, with plenty of photos so I'm looking forward to getting stuck into it.
In Bantry square there are two rather fine statues of white blokes - neither are pompous or colonialist, both are rather attractive and both are the work of women. This is Brendan the Navigator, who, you will remember, was a Kerry man who was visited by an angel who told him to seek out the Promised Isle. After much soul searching he, and a small group of monks, set off in their coracle and probably rocked up in Nova Scotia or thereabouts. There were many adventures enroute including saying Mass on an island which turned out to be a whale, and meeting Judas Iscariot chained to a rock wtf?. In 1976 Tim Severin set out to see if this voyage was at all possible - it was! Here's a short video. 

This statue was erected in 1969 to commemorate the opening of an oil terminal on nearby Whiddy Island and is of beaten copper. Sculptors: Ian Stuart and Imogen Stuart. I love it.

The proper name for the square is Wolfe Tone Square - and yes, the other chap, is Theobald Wolfe Tone who gazes wistfully out across the Bay, pondering on his failed invasion attempt in 1796. He was a Protestant with noble ideas hoping to unite Ireland with the help of a French fleet. Unfortunately the invasion was poorly planned, took place during truly terrible weather and it all went horribly wrong. Wolfe Tone uttered the immortal words: we were near enough to toss a biscuit ashore.The sculptor is Jeanne Rynhart and it was erected in 2000. He too is normally adorned with seagulls.
Here's some of the Brendan Voyage  by Shaun Davey. Enjoy.