West Cork in a ray of Mediterranean glory

FRIDAY, Saturday and Sunday, July 14 to 18, was the best weekend for horse-racing on the sandbanks or lazing on the beach for this or many a year.

On the Sunday afternoon, race day at Courtmacsherry’s “undiscovered gem of the West Cork coast” — as the brochures have it — the street was thronged with people in shorts and suntans, horses decanting from horse boxes, jockeys in white jodhpurs and starry shirts, and yet more horses returning, foam-flecked, from their ferocious gallop along the sands.

The commentary on a tannoy speaker, flowing as fast at the horses galloped, relayed the excitement of the race and bookies chalked their odds under umbrellas and straw hats in the 28C bright sunlight of the afternoon.