Full Description
'You can't eat scenery' is an old saying about the difficulty of making a living in beautiful but remote places. West Cork, from Kinsale to the Beara Peninsula and from the Atlantic to the Lee Valley is such a place. No longer an impoverished, rural backwater, this is a popular holiday destination where second homes become main residences. It is remarkable for the many ways people make West Cork work for them: traditional farmers negotiating EU quotas; newcomers setting up restaurants; artists, writers and dot.com millionaires starting ventures to allow them to live where they want. Others work to enhance this unique landscape: from environmental activists on Cool Mountain to the hard-working Shelswell-Whites of Bantry House, wealthy castle restorers like Jeremy Irons and innovative farmers on Beara. In this first full-length book about all aspects of West Cork, the locals and blow-ins, Alannah Hopkin discovers the soul of West Cork among a vibrant community of diverse people with compelling stories to tell.
Contents
About the author iv Acknowledgements iv Map v Prologue 1 Introduction 7 1 Long Ago - The Early History of West Cork 17 2 Farmers and Food Producers 35 3 The Coast of West Cork Revisited 53 4 Living Offshore - The Islands 67 5 Losing our Head - Environmental Activism 83 6 The View from the Big House 96 7 Are You Enjoying Your Holiday? 108 8 Oh what a Paradise it seems - Incomers 1969-2007 123 9 A Very Expensive Hobby 143 10 The Murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier 159 11 Mozart in the Cow Byre - Successful Enterprises in the Arts 173 12 On Cool Mountain - Craft Enterprises 190 13 The Allihies Postman - Artists and the GAA 207 14 Amidst These Hills - The Gaeltacht, Saints and Scholars 226 Index 242
