Michael Cusack is the author of Croagh Patrick and the Islands of Clew Bay: A Guide to the Edge of Europe.
He first climbed Croagh Patrick at the age of six and has climbed the mountain countless times since. His travels have included trekking in the Everest and Annapurna regions of Nepal, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Mount Kosciuszko in Australia, and leading multi-week cycling and hiking trips in Europe and the United States.
A former member of the Irish National Bicycling Team and Olympic Squad, Michael raced extensively in Europe and the United States. He holds a Master’s degree in communications.
Why I wrote the book
It isn’t hard to be inspired by Clew Bay. It is one of nature’s great spectacles, and it takes only a few minutes of climbing Croagh Patrick to understand why.
When I began researching the bay, I was surprised by how little had been written about the social history and geography of its islands. Clare Island was well documented, not least because of its association with Granuaile, the Pirate Queen, but Clew Bay contains another 141 named islands, together with numerous unnamed tidal islands and drowned drumlins.
The familiar claim is that Clew Bay has an island for every day of the year. Whether it really has 365 is an argument I happily leave to others.
What interested me were the individual islands and their stories.
There is Dorinish, associated with John Lennon; Inishraher and its connection with the Transcendental Meditation movement; and Inishturk Beg, transformed by businessman Nadim Sadek.
And then there are the lesser-known stories: the legend of hidden Danish gold on Inishdaugh; Inishgowla with its valley and freshwater lake; tales surrounding the wrecks beneath the waters of the bay; and the commune led by “King of the Hippies” Sid Rawle, which lived on Dorinish for two years.
Piecing together Clew Bay
Using Ordnance Survey maps dating from 1848, field research and interviews, material from the national archives and numerous other sources, I tried to piece together a picture of the bay and its islands.
The research also led far beyond the islands themselves.
There was the successful campaign against gold mining on Croagh Patrick in 1989; the dozens of shipwrecks beneath the waters of Clew Bay, including vessels associated with the Spanish Armada; Tóchar Phádraig, the ancient pilgrimage route to Croagh Patrick; the Western Way and Famine Road through the southern wilderness; Brackloon Wood on the slopes of the mountain; and the prehistoric landscape surrounding the Reek.
The result became Croagh Patrick and the Islands of Clew Bay: A Guide to the Edge of Europe.
Radio interview
Michael Cusack talks to Tommy Marren of Midwest Radio about the book