If we in the Republic are seeking ways of showing our openness to the people on the other side of the Border, a recent letter to this newspaper suggests a very small but significant way we might show interest. Mr D. W. Laing of Ballymoney, Co Antrim, wrote about the famous Giant's Causeway Tram, now long gone. It is not possible to restore the full length of that remarkable feat of engineering, but Mr Laing proposes to run a steam train along the last two miles or so from Bushmills to the Causeway. This is an interesting project in itself, but it also puts the focus on what is not only the most outstanding wonder of this island, but a wonder of world stature.
Very talented men can, at times be fools. Remember the fatuous exchange between Boswell and Johnson: Boswell: "Is not the Giant's Causeway worth seeing?" Johnson: "Worth seeing, yes, but not worth going to see." And while the plan Mr Laing set out is being backed by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and by the Ireland Fund, money could still be welcome. The Dublin Government could, perhaps, do us all a bit of good by volunteering some help with the project. (So many of them have been all round the world. How many, would you say, have stood on the stones of the Causeway?)
The new conveyance will not be a tram, but a steam train, formerly one that graced Shane's Castle in Antrim. This is all in a lovely setting, with an air of incomparable freshness and invigoration. People travel the world to see wonders built by man: here is a wonder created by God or Nature or whatever force you may call it. People of discernment have visited it time and again, have had the geology of it explained to them - the smooth, perfectly dovetailed pillars of stone, turn after turn beside the path, often towering hundreds of feet above the sea level. You can also get boatmen to row you into caves of remarkable depth and height. Even those who have said "I defy this place to impress me", have been impressed. You don't have to wait for the arrival of the train, of course to go there. If you have a love of this sod, you will be impressed. The people of the area, as in all North Antrim, are easy and warm. Another day we'll look at what the writers of the Ordnance Survey documents of the 1830s had to say - the people Brian Friel wrote about in his great play Translations. Some of it very funny.