

Santa Ponsa (top) Keem Bay (below) I know which I prefer
Some like to holiday where it’s sunny. Some don’t mind.
I’m one of the latter group. And here’s why.
Of course I like to see clear blue skies. Of course I like the heat of the sun on my skin (with factor 50 on!)
Of course I like warm sea water. And of course I like sipping a nice cold beer outside some traditional local drinking emporium.
But I prefer my holidays at home.
Because our beaches aren’t surrounded by multi storey hotels and apartment blocks. We don’t have huge pubs selling butter and Watney’s Red Barrell. We don’t have beaches where you can’t get an inch for yourself and we don’t have gangs of loud, drunken, ejects from, well, anywhere, on our most beautiful beaches.
I was on the beach at Keem Bay on Achill Island this week. It was a sunny day, so it was busy. Might have been, oh, thirty people on it.
Old Head near Louisburghthe following day, same story.
Beautiful beaches, Condé Nast Traveller puts Keem third in the world, but not ruined by boisterous crowds, but treated with respect by genuine lovers of beauty.
As for local scenery – stunning. No high rise blocking it.
Throw in a guarantee of sunny summers every year?
It’s gone. In a flash.
As quickly as it takes a hen party to drive you out of a pub in Temple Bar.
So thanks to the rain.
Long may it fall!