I rent a longboard and wetsuit at Lahinch, paddle out and sit in the swale
waiting for the perfect wave to rise, turn back towards the strand to see
my wife and daughter riding a wave side by side to the shallows
I run to the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge
wait in the queue for my chance to traverse
the chasm, bounce and sway above the waves
I take a boat from Portmagee to Skellig Michael
climb the six-hundred-and-eighteen steps
to St. Fionan’s monastery, look out over the north
Atlantic (calm and blue today, basking in summer sun)
peek inside the monk’s beehive huts, imagine their ascetic
lives at the edge of their known world, listen to the cries
of the gannets of Little Skellig, spy puffins clinging
to cliffs with webbed orange feet
I meet Bono for a pint at Finnegan’s of Dalkey
sit in a booth discussing Heaney’s poetry, Nick Cave’s
lyrics, the use of cliches in choruses, the power of similes
and metaphors, Ned Kelly’s reputation in Ireland, Yeats’
obsession with Maud Gonne, the quality of Irish whiskey
the intersection of violence and nationalism … we share an order
of chips, deep fried brie and a smoked salmon salad, finish
with a couple of Jamesons and a ten-year-old Laphroig (his shout)
I run up Croagh Patrick until I reach the steepest part
of the path, stride past pilgrims to the summit, circle the chapel
before resting to survey Clew Bay and the islands
After my last drink of the night, I ask the hotel manager
to remove the portrait of Cromwell from above the staircase –
Don’t you know what he did to our ancestors?!
Nathanael O’Reilly teaches creative writing at the University of Texas at Arlington. His thirteen collections include Dublin Wandering (Recent Work Press, 2024), Landmarks (Lamar University Literary Press, 2024), Selected Poems of Ned Kelly (Downingfield Press, 2024), Boulevard (Downingfield Press, 2024), (Un)belonging (Recent Work Press, 2020) and Preparations for Departure (University of Western Australia Publishing, 2017). His work appears in journals and anthologies published in fifteen countries, including Cordite, Mascara, Meanjin, New World Writing Quarterly, Southword, Trasna, Westerly and West Trade Review. He is poetry editor for Antipodes: A Global Journal of Australian/New Zealand Literature.