Dan MacCarthy: Slowly, we enter another world in Clare

O'Briensbridge which links Co Clare and Co Limerick (Montpelier). Picture: Dan MacCarthy

The opening appears like an entrance to another world. A sunken arch in a field invites a further look that has all the promise of a Jules Verne mystery and the intrigue of a Sherlock Holmes investigation. What lies within this underworld, this chthonic realm?

This is Inishlosky, Co Clare. Though the island is in the Banner County, a historic interpretation gave one of its 14 acres to Co Limerick. The natural bend in the river would seem to suggest Limerick’s were the greater claim, but let’s not start a war.