Mid Summer Evening, Clew Bay

Late evening view of Clare Island sitting at the mouth of Clew Bay, the dominant island of the many hundreds of smaller islands in the bay. It was a fitting place for the home of Ireland's notorious 16th century pirate queen Grainne Uaile (Grace O'Malley) from where she ruled the seas around Connaught.

 'It forms an event in one's life to have seen that place, so beautiful is it, and so unlike all other beauties that I know of'' W.M. Thackeray 1842 English travel writer on Clew Bay, near Westport.