Black Ash
The Ash is an evil beyond all human imagination and means. In the fifth century, with Rome and its empire in collapse, the Church secreted the Ash to Ireland for safekeeping. It was buried. In time rumor and legend faded, the Ash was all but forgotten. Over the centuries, however, its menace never subsided and there remained those with dark ambitions who sought it.
It was all but inevitable that one day the Ash would rise again. At that time a few unlikely strangers would be asked to step forward and fight for the very future of mankind.
The tour
Dunluce castle
Stopping just short of the access bridge, he felt apprehensive. For the first time that day, or more accurately, the first time in many years, he was scared. Since leaving home that morning, his actions had been reflex, driven by instinct. Now, on the eve of mobilization, he felt exposed to a growing uncertainty about things that he had always held as absolute.
Croagh Patrick
Reek Sunday
For the rest of the way he walked while some others ran, he wore shoes while a few brave souls went barefoot. On the way up he passed old and young, and was passed in turn by many of the same. Though exhausted his excitement never waned and seemed to be shared by all those he climbed with.
Portrush
The narrow coastal road clung precariously to the cliff's edge. An unforgiving wall of rock on one side, the Irish sea and a watery grave on the other. Jim O’Neil, eighteen, squinting from the summer sun, sped nevertheless, his masculinity in some way proportional to overage from posted speed limits.
Westport
"I came to Westport in July 1968 with little more than the clothes on my back and a bottle of whiskey in my bag. I arrived here by way of one hundred random turns and countless rides with strangers whose destination became my own for the period of our acquaintance."
Derry
"To the right is our most recent history, the Bogside."
Mary looked at rows of new, white terrace houses running westward. The smoke and flames that were a common sight during the troubles were gone, though the look in Kate's eyes showed that those times were not easily forgotten.
Belfast
As they strolled Mary outlined her plans for the summer. She talked about going to Queens University come September, studying medicine, becoming a doctor, saving the world. For a time, mesmerized by the exquisite picture of life she was painting, she fell victim to her own propaganda.
Dublin
They met more than a decade earlier in a Leeson Street club. He was old enough to be her grandfather. There was no pretense from the start. Each simply sought what the other was prepared to give. For Shauna it was all about the finer things in life. Alfred, on the other hand, chose her carefully for reasons beyond the short affair that ensued.
