Allihies a charming little village on the end of the Beara Peninsula, known for the only cable car in Ireland, the copper mining of the 19th century and quite simply its beauty . Here lots of photos and photography of the region.
Balydonegan waves first winds of October rise up the sea to create some nice rolling wave. I used a very high shutter speed of 1/8000th of a second and an ISO of 400 to get these shots. Some of the shots are not as sharp as I would have liked and I put this down to the cheap lens I was using. The lens was on infinity setting so there should be a sharp spot on each image. The effects of the frozen sea are quite good though.
Plain crane madness down at the pier in Balydonegan. For years there was a perfectly serviceable wooden crane. Anybody could use to lift out their boat preceding a storm or at the end of the summer season. This eventually was replaced with a galvanised steel crane which was equally effective but would last a lot more years due to its construction techniques. In fact it would probably still be there today. However some bright spark decided that what worked for decades was not good enough. Lets replace what works with a high tech hydraulic crane and its control box. Total price probably in excess of 100000 Euros.
So along came the engineers and the technicians to install this wonderful new crane. A local fisherman suggested moving the control box higher up than it was. He was ignored. Result after the first storm the crane broke down due to a flooded control box. Along came the clever technical guys and moved the control box to an extra added expense.
Next winter came along and smashed the whole crane into a broken eyesore. It no longer works and cost the tax payer almost certainly in excess of 100K Euro. Maybe they would be kind enough to come back and give the pier back its galvanised crane, that withstood all the elements could throw at it and only needed a bit of grease.
Plain crane madness
The crane today unusable with smashed control leversBroken levers and cut hydraulicsThe control box back from the pierAn example of the flooding
The storms this year were very bad but the crane has not been working for quite sometime. Actually for the months that it worked it probably calculates to 10000 Euros a month.
Billy Griffin Artist is located in Allihies on the Beara Peninsula, West Cork. He has been producing his art since he was 19 or 20 years old. Finger paintings is his speciality and he has had his fair share of success in Ireland and around the world. An interesting man to get to talk to as he has had such an interesting life. This short video gives an insight into how he works and thinks.
New – I messed up the sound when I made this video five years ago. As I am recovering from an operation I decided to fix it – New
Watch the new sound improved version of the film below
