Clouds have a silver lining

Despite sceptics who feel they are a cause for gloom, the first Irish Cloud Festival aims to show that clouds are beautiful. Joe McNamee reports

IT’S a racing certainty a more suspicious class of reader will be scouring calendars to check the date but, no, it’s not April Fool’s Day or anything of that ilk — the very first Irish Cloud Festival really is taking place in West Cork this July.

Still, it’s hard to fault anyone pondering the wisdom of such an event in Ireland, where, the most boorish of rainclouds seem to take up near-permanent summer residence, equally reluctant to move elsewhere during the off-season, particularly, the much-maligned nimbostratus — thick, grey, featureless murk swallowing up sun and sky for days at a time, always bringing at least rain.