“YOU could smell the sea when you got to Oranmore. That’s when I kind of began to breathe again, when you see the sea for the first time…

“The road to Oughterard could be like the rest of Galway with the limestone fields. It was only when you came out through Oughterard, up the hill at Glengowla School and suddenly, there were the Twelve Bens in front of you, the big lake beside you and the bogs.