Damien Enright: La Gomera gives a taste of an older, simpler Canarian world

Gomera is the smaller, less-well-known Canary island behind which the sun sets

Roque de Agando is one of La Gomera's most striking features and is frequently used as a symbol for the island. 

In West Cork three times over the Easter weekend, I was approached by visitors asking me about the island of La Gomera, this as a result of my annual columns and photographs of the island published in the Irish Examiner. I greatly enjoyed chatting with them. They had read about Gomera in my columns over the years. I'm told that this is the 188th column I have written about the Gomera and other Canary islands. I haven't counted them myself.

Two of those with whom I chatted over a drink had already spent holidays on the island and would be spending more. What I'd said about it had prompted them to go in the first place and, clearly, they hadn't been disappointed. People ask me about the island regularly, so, here's the full skinny as I know it...