Irish Examiner view: At loggerheads with our climate

Epic journey for Macdara, the turtle

Connemara’s Carna bay. 

There are many admirable attractions to an Irish beach holiday, but a bracing dip into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Connemara at this time of year is not a challenge to be taken lightly or without preparation. Or, perhaps, even without a wetsuit.

Spare some thought, then, for the rare loggerhead turtle, nicknamed Macdara after the local patron saint, swept up from the tropical waters of the Canary Islands in the wrong current during Storm Barra and deposited on the island of Muighinis, near Carna.