While Dublin people go west, as mentioned here on Saturday, where do Belfast people make for when they take a short break? The Mourne country for sure; then the Glens of Antrim and the North coast in general, not forgetting the resorts of Portrush and Portstewart, both with magnificent beaches. Fair Head and Ballycastle with a view of Scotland often looming clear. Until comparatively recently anyway, it was a marvel how the Coast Road was kept clear of ugly housing. Planning permission was very restricted. The Glens of Antrim are the nearest to a fountain of old-time memories for many people. Moira O'Neill wrote two books of nostalgic verse. Thus, Loughareema, the lake that does at time vanish as if down a drain, only to be back again. "Loughareema, Loughareema,/ Stars come out an' stars are hidin'/The wather whispers on the stones/The flittherin' moths are free./One'st before the mornin' light/The Horseman will come ridin'/Roun' an `roun' the fairy lough,/An' no one there to see." Then, Fermanagh, the Ards peninsula? But is there no one rush, such as the lemmings from Dublin to Galway and Mayo, for example? Donegal, of course, is much frequented by people from the north-east.
C. S. Lewis, author of The Screwtape Letters and other works of Christian apologetics, is famous with children for his stories of Narnia, that magical wonderland. A new book on Lewis who, though born in Belfast, spent mostg of his life in England, has been published by the Institute of Irish Studies at QUB: C. S. Lewis and Ireland by Ronald W. Breeland (£8.50stg), and it tells of his love of and knowledge of the Northern countryside and seacoasts. And, oddly, the "forest of factory chimneys, gantries and giant cranes rising out of a welter of mist." And Narnia is an imaginary world made out of the real stuff of the Ulster countryside, the rocks, the heather, the low hills (of Antrim) and mountains much higher (the Mournes) ....... "the garden and magic apple tree which lie to the west of Narnia at the end of the blue lake" (Lough Neagh), and so on.
And Lewis also wrote; "I have seen landscapes (notably in the Mourne Mountains) which under a particular light made me feel that at any moment a giant might raise his head over the next ridge. Nature has that in her which compels us to invent giants: and only giants will do." Our original questions remains unanswered.