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Ireland Photo of the Week: Every Tuesday, our friend Kevin Balanda is sharing a special photo from Ireland and telling its story here on Irlandnews. Kevin worked in Dublin for many years and now lives in West Cork. He enjoys taking his camera with him wherever he goes. This week we return to Bantry Bay in West Cork:

The lesser known Garinish, a famous astronomer and a mysterious illness

Garinish West, just off Zetland Pier near Glengarriff on the Beara Peninsula, is an island very close to shore (‘Gar Inish’ means ‘near island’ in Irish). Unlike the well-known Garinish in Glengarriff Harbour, Garinish West has been unpopulated except for a small holiday home built in 1966 by Bernard Lovell; the famous English astronomer known as the “father of radio astronomy”.

In the late 1950s, Lowell led the development of the world-famous telescope at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, England. As it was being developed, crippling debts mounted and the project looked doomed; at one point. Lowell was threatened with imprisonment. But when Russia launched the world’s first satellite and Jodrell Bank was able to track it, funding for the completion of the telescope was secured.

Lovell wanted to keep things simple on Garinish West. His wife, Mary, described the island as their heavenly retreat and the couple and their children holidayed there often. Its isolation and clear unpolluted skies also allowed Lovell to gaze up at the celestial constellations and contemplate the mysteries of the cosmos.

In post-humously released notes, Lovell claimed that, on a trip to a Soviet space facility in the Crimea, he was the victim of an attempted poisoning after he declined to work on the Soviet space programme. He said “it was as though all life had suddenly turned to dust and ashes.” Fortunately, the illness lifted during a holiday to Garinish West when he “suddenly began to feel normal”. The true cause of his illness remains unknown.

 

 

Photographic specifications: This photo was taken with an Apple iPhone 11 and reported focal length was 5 mm. Returned exposure settings were ISO 32, f/1.8, 1/2000 s. It was edited in Lightroom.

© Kevin Balanda

 

This story / page is available in: German