The "Irish Eyes are a'Limin'" Story

It was an ordinary day. Just opened an email from Caribbean Life-Travel Magazine. They just published an online story written by Andrew McCarthy. Any guesses what it would be about today? I have absolutely no Irish in my blood, but I still enjoy reading a good story about the Irish. And, today's story takes place in Montserrat, that tiny 7-by-10-mile pear-shaped volcanic outcropping in the Caribbean Sea. The Irish history of this British West Indian island dates from the early 17th century when indentured servants from Ireland, having completed their time on neighboring islands such as St. Kitts, found their freedom on Montserrat. Some even became slave owners themselves. Many inter-married with the locals and thus the many Irish names in the phone book. Farrell, Sweeney, Meade, and O'Brian dominate the pages along with 54 Ryans. All this on an island that now has only approximately 4,500 residents. The island is entirely volcanic and much of the island was devastated and two-thirds of the population fled to other islands during the eruption of the Soufriere Hills Volcano on the south side of the island that began on July 18, 1995. Another large eruption of "Madame" Soufriere in 1997 buried most of the capital of Plymouth under a layer of ash and mud and resulted in over half of the island becoming uninhabitable. Another large and damaging eruption occurred in 2003. This tiny island doesn't seem like a place to celebrate St. Partick's Day, but it is the only place, outside of Ireland, to have it as an official public holiday. And, they love to celebrate soooo much that they do it for an entire week. My kind of island! But, I'm not sure I would want to chance a visit to this island. This once popular tourist destination is having trouble bringing back it's tourist trade. At one time it attracted the jet-setting crowd with rock-n-roll superstars like the Rolling Stones, Elton John and Dire Straits traveling to Montserrat to record in Beatles' producer George Martin's recording studio. Carol and I were talking about our memories of the island and found we have very few. Back in 2003, when we were relaxing on Orient Beach, which is located in St. Martin and to the north-west of Montserrat, we remember feeling something falling from the sky onto our skin. Some kind of ash. Every day we were there! Seems that the wind was coming from the south-east and it was carrying ash from the volcano on Montserrat that had again erupted. Breathing that ash made us think what it must be like to live on an island with an active volcano that can erupt at any time. And then again in October of 2010, when we traveled to Antigua, we were taking a tour of the island and as we sat on one of the beaches, we had a clear view of Montserrat and witnessed the huge cloud of ash that was towering over the volcano that day. Luckily the wind was blowing parallel to Antigua and not leaving any deposit of ash on us. What must it be like to live on a volcanic island? Hey, the Irish have stuck it out since the 17th century. Must have something to do with all that

Guinness they drink. That and the limin' (chillin' out for those who don't know). It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.PS - photos from the top are: fantastic view of the volcano erupting at night with the red

lava flowing down the sides of the volacano, daytime photo ofthe volcano erupting in 1995, the south side of the island with the lava flow from the 1995 eruption, capital city of Plymouth covered with a layer of ash and mud from the eruption in 1997, Eruptive activity of the Soufriere Hills Volcano is evidenced in this image by an extensive smoke and ash plume streaming towards the west-southwest, taken from the island of Antigua when we visited in 2010 - off in the distance is Montserrat and behind the white umbrella is the cloud of smoke and ash.