B1–B2 IRELAND CD Track 7 TF Activities W Recorded

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COUNTY SLIGO:
THE POET’S IRELAND
County Sligo in the northwest
corner of Ireland is a special
place; one of wild waves, rugged
rocks, folklore and legend. There’s
something mysterious here,
something magical. It’s this that
inspired Ireland’s greatest poet,
who returned time after time
and still lies here today. Welcome
to the poet’s Ireland.
Liam Peach (UK)

Yeats’ Country
Sligo will forever be associated with
the Nobel-prize-winning William Butler
Yeats, who is regarded as Ireland’s most
important poet. Yeats was born in Dublin and
educated in London, but he and his brother
and sisters would visit their grandparents
in Sligo every summer. The place made a big
impression on young Yeats, and the beauty
of the countryside there, as well as the local
folklore, inspired much of his early work.
He called Sligo “the land of heart’s desire”
and later described his early poetry as
“a flight (= an escape) into faeryland from
the real world”.
Years later, as Yeats reached the end
of his life, Sligo again entered his thinking.
One of his last major poems is “Under Ben
Bulben” – the title refers to the mountain
which rises high above Sligo and which is
the setting for various Irish legends. Before
his death, Yeats gave instructions that his
body should be buried in Sligo, beneath
the mountain of Ben Bulben.
Normal People was praised for
the performances of the two lead actors,
Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal.
The Fairy Mountain
Ben Bulben (Binn Ghulbain in Irish) is
the dominant geological feature of County
Sligo. This flat-topped mountain reaches
a height of 526m and is a favourite with
hikers. The view from the top takes in green
fields dotted with sheep and the dramatic
Atlantic coast. It is also an important place
in Irish legend and mythology, as it is said
to have been one of the hunting grounds
of the Fianna, a band of warriors who,
when they weren’t protecting Ireland from
invaders, loved feasting1 and making trouble.
Ben Bulben is also named in the ancient
Irish legend of Gráinne and Diarmuid. Gráinne
was a princess who was supposed to marry
a giant and leader of the Fianna named Fionn
mac Cumhaill (anglicised as Finn McCool).
Fionn was a mighty warrior – it was he who
built the Giant’s Causeway, another Irish
landmark – but he seemed too old to Gráinne.
You can get some of the best seafood in
Ireland in Sligo.
The Warrior Queen
County Sligo’s association with folklore
doesn’t end with Ben Bulben. On the top of
a hill called Knocknarea stands a 10‑metre
high, 55‑metre wide Neolithic tomb, one
of Ireland’s largest. It is believed to date
back to around 3000 BCE. It is called
Miosgán Meadhbha, or Maeve’s Cairn4 in
English, because it is said to be the burial
place5 of the legendary warrior queen and
goddess Medb.
Queen Medb (Méabh in modern Irish,
and anglicised as Maeve) was the queen
of Connacht• in the Ulster Cycle, a famous
collection of medieval Irish heroic legends
and sagas. She was strong, ambitious, very
clever and incredibly beautiful. It’s said
that is how she got her name: she was so
lovely that men became as though drunk
on mead6 when they looked at her! Legend
has it that the warrior queen was buried

CULTURE
She instead fell in love with another member standing up, holding a spear7 and facing in
of the Fianna, Diarmuid. To escape her the direction of Ulster, home of her biggest

POINT Sligo
wedding, she drugged the wedding guests,
and she and Diarmuid escaped together.
enemy, King Conchobar.

Seafood, Seaweed
Connacht is one of ch
t For years after, they hid from Fionn and
the four traditional Co
nna
the Fianna. Eventually, the scandal seemed and Surfing
provinces of forgotten and forgiven. The Fianna invited But there’s far more to this place than just
D
AN

Ireland, the other Diarmuid to a boar2 hunt on Ben Bulben. ancient history. Sligo today is a modern,
EL

three being Ulster, Despite the fact that a prophecy3 said that he happening• place. Its restaurants attract
IR

Munster and would be killed by a boar, he still went... and foodies8 from far and wide, while adrenaline
Leinster. you can probably guess the rest. So it’s not junkies come for its surfing hotspots.
only Yeats who rests beneath this mountain. The Atlantic Ocean is the common factor

6 BRIDGE / March 2023

 I
SLIGO

William Butler Yeats

W. B. Yeats summed up the beauty and magic of Sligo perfectly: “There is another world, but it is in this one.“

Sligo is one of the best places in Ireland for surfing. Archaeologists believe that Maeve’s Cairn is a Neolithic tomb, but
according to tradition, it is where Queen Medb is buried.

here. You can get some of the best seafood
in Ireland in Sligo, with fresh lobster9 and
oysters10 on many restaurant menus.
Another key ingredient from the ocean is
seaweed11. Although that may not sound too
appetizing, cooking with seaweed has a long
tradition in Ireland. Today, Sligo’s chefs are
bringing the tradition into the 21st century,
experimenting with seaweed in everything
from smoothies to pesto. And the seaweed
isn’t just eaten. Another Sligo tradition is to
take a seaweed bath, which is said to relieve
stress, help aches and pains• and have
benefits for the skin and hair.
For those who prefer their water a bit
rougher, Sligo is also one of the best places
in Ireland for surfing. It is possible to ride
the surf all year round, but autumn and
winter see Atlantic storms which produce
some truly giant waves, bringing surfers
from all over the country.
A 21st‑Century
Literary Sensation
Sligo has also found itself in the spotlight12
recently thanks to the bestselling novel
Normal People by Irish writer Sally Rooney
and the hugely successful BBC adaptation
of the same name. It tells the story of
a relationship between two teenagers as
they finish secondary school in the town
of Carricklea in Sligo (a fictional location
filmed for the TV series in Sligo’s second
biggest town, Tubbercurry) and start
university in Dublin. Both the book and
TV series have been widely praised for
the complex and realistic relationship
between the social outcast13 Marianne and
the popular athlete Connell. The TV show
is also worth watching for its beautiful
cinematography featuring the landscape of
western Ireland.

VOCABULARY
1 feasting [ˈfiːstɪŋ] – hodování
2 boar [ bɔː(r)] – kanec
3 prophecy [ ˈprɒfəsi] – proroctví
4 cairn [ keən] – (kamenná) mohyla
5 burial place [ ˈberiəl] – hrob, místo
posledního odpočinku
6 mead [miːd] – medovina
7 spear [spɪə(r)] – oštěp, kopí
8 foodie [ ˈfuːdi] – gurmán, labužník LANGUAGE POINTS• separately, ache has a narrower and
9 lobster [ˈlɒbstə(r)] – humr • As a noun, the word happening refers more specific meaning than pain.
10 oyster [ˈɔɪstə(r)] – ústřice to something that has happened, to an It means a long-lasting, continuous
11 seaweed [ˈsiːwiːd] – chaluhy, event. As an adjective, it means cool and discomfort (a headache, back ache, etc.).
mořské řasy fashionable (e.g. a happening place). Unlike the word pain, it is usually used
12 in the spotlight [ˈspɒtlaɪt] – ve středu • The idiom aches and pains refers to only for a physical experience, with
pozornosti normal physical discomforts, especially one exception: heartache is a feeling of
13 outcast [ ˈaʊtkɑːst] – vyvrhel those related to age and lifestyle rather emotional pain that comes with loss,
than specific injury or illness. Taken sadness or a love that is not returned.

BRIDGE / March 2023 7