Clodagh Finn: Let’s take a leaf from Dervla Murphy’s book and travel in a lower gear

Should we ask the question if zipping off to sun ourselves in a hot country is the right thing to do now?

Travel writer Dervla Murphy relaxing at home with a can of beer as she prepared for a trip to Vladivostok.

Wed, 25 May, 2022 - 12:30

Clodagh Finn is a journalist, writer and collector of stories. Her recent book, The Irish in the Resistance, co-authored with John Morgan, shines a light on the forgotten contributions of the Irish who resisted Hitler during WW2.

The world might be a better place if we all travelled as the late, great Dervla Murphy did — by bicycle, on foot, on public transport or, if you’re valiant enough, by pack mule.

She never learned to drive, as many of the tributes to the travel writer, adventurer and author, who died on Monday, have noted. And yet she went further than most of us will in a lifetime, writing about her far-flung adventures in more than 26 books that will hopefully continue to find new readers.