Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
VICTORIAN BRITAIN HAD the finest railways in the world. Steel monsters and gothic stations, at once futuristic and medieval.
Since the 1990s, the quality of the service has gradually diminished. Striking workers, sleepy politicians and greedy train barons have only exacerbated the problem. So when my girlfriend suggested we take the train to Wales for a weekend away, I almost winced.
I’ve been hurt too many times before. Travelling relentlessly for gigs has diced my forehead with worry lines.
A delayed journey to Lincolnshire meant hopping off early and hailing a cab. Overcrowding at Manchester meant not everyone with a ticket could get on board. A cancelled connection and missing a replacement bus in East Anglia pushed me towards the bear-hug embrace of another taxi driver. These were all in the last 12 months. When a rail network collapses due to mismanagement in the global south, do the people there think – God, this is like living in a 1st world country?
The Paddington to Stockport leg of our trip was actually okay. We lurched down the narrow carriage until we found a free table and pulled out our devices. After completing the customary rituals (dogged clacking of keys, intakes of breath incrementally more resigned than the last) we accepted that the WiFi didn’t work and would never work.
Sipping coffee from paper cups, we gazed idly at the grassy bowls of field and coiling rivers of the English countryside.
The local train from Stockport to Abergavenny was more of an ordeal. Rust-tinted and packed till bursting, the carriages heaved with families, couples and teens knocking back cheap tinnies of cider. We straddled our bags like they were mechanical bulls and tried to keep our balance.
Abergavenny is a Welsh market town with a central promenade lined with coffee houses, charity shops and Mediterranean diners. In the near distance, a carpet of lush pastures unfurls into a horizon of green hills.
You’d have to squint for a long moment to be certain you’re not in Ireland. The giveaway is the dearth of pubs in the town centre. That’s not to say Abergaveeny isn’t a drinking town. There’s a cocktail lounge, a wine bar serving tapas atop wood-chipped barrels, and a vineyard offering tasting tours. There’s a single nightclub for the local mountain folk to get trollied in, too.
In the morning, we went hiking up the Sugar Loaf. No, not the one in Wicklow. Even the place names were a mirror image of home. Only the bilingual road signs reminded us of our place in the world. There is an eccentricity of spirit here that is so poorly understood beyond its borders.
Though Wales is the least nationalistic of England’s colonies, the Welsh language thrives. The Irish may have fought bloody wars to achieve our independence, but broadly cannot be bothered to revive our native tongue. A group of older women passed us on our way up, the distinct pronunciation of vowel sounds catching on the wind. I paused to listen, tried to get purchase on their weird, venerable words. But the wind gathered pace and the sing-song sounds of their voices were lost.
Born and reared on the parched terrain of Andalusia, our surroundings held an exotic quality for my partner. She went gooey-eyed for diffident livestock, posed for selfies against the backdrop of spritzing tributaries. Enjoying her enthusiasm, I appreciated my surroundings with fresh eyes.
Had I completely taken the setting of my childhood for granted? The lost afternoons in Glendalough, elaborate games of toy-gun warfare on the Curragh. Old memories fizzed with new life.
Around halfway up, the weather turned. Charcoal-coloured clouds pressed in as the elements battered our tired bodies. The trees and hedges of the ascent gave way to stone, leaving us totally exposed to the rogue twists of gale and rain.
Wordlessly, we heaved ourselves to the top. I found us a nook in the rocks to protect us from the belts of wind. Then we cannibalised our salami sandwiches and cheese and onion crisps.
On the way back down, the adrenaline softened into something lighter. Like I was floating a little. Shafts of daylight burst through the gloom with miraculous urgency, the drizzle eased off. No longer yearning for my bed, I grew excited about the evening in Abergavenny.
A hot meal accompanied by lashings of a local wine. Hiking in Wales, it occurred to me, was much like swimming in the Irish Sea. The pleasure is derived not from the act itself, but the having done it – the euphoria of cheating death.
Peter Flanagan is an Irish comedian and writer. You can find him on Twitter @peterflanagan and Instagram @peterflanagancomedy.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Bernie Sanders said “abandoning working class people,” costed them the election. . “When you abandon the working men and women of America, you shouldn’t be surprised when they abandon you.”
Simon should take note.
@Michale Kane: There’s no brownie points in that from George Soros and his NGO army though.
@Michale Kane: Most of Ireland middle class tho.
Hopefully while he’s there he might get a few tips from Viktor Orban,a true leader who puts his own people first and is well able to say no to both the EU and the cancerous NGO lobby!
@Jonn: A wise decision curtail the NGOs. You’ll find an organisation called USAID behind all the ‘colour revolutions’ of the last few decades. That’s who the US government sends in when they want to regime-change a country to install ‘American Values’
@Jonn: absolutely and Poland
@sean mcnamara:
Absolutely, Orban is well aware that the leftist NGOs are the enemy within,opening the door to them is like injecting a virus into your society,as we’ve learnt to our cost in Ireland over the last twenty years!
@Jonn: No fear of that
@Jonn: he should have stood up to the cancerous greens as well, forget about the rodent he just wants to make sure he’s food source is available
FG FF GP days are numbered . They have talked down to and ignored the indigenous Irish people . Payback time will be 29/11/2024 .
@Jim Ryan:
I dearly wish this were true,Jim,but sadly I doubt it,the Irish sheeple will carry on obediently voting for the same old shower,and keep getting the same old results!
@Jonn: We can only live in hope that it won’t be the same as usual this time , Jonn
@Jim Ryan: Which party would you like to see in government?
@Cole Palmer: Cole , my preference is for Irish Freedom Party , National Party , Ireland First , The Irish People . I’m not a member of any political party .
@Jim Ryan: Did you see Oberfeldwebel Barrett wearing the nazi style jacket? It was down to his shins. The coat pockets were at his knees! I laughed a lot at the poor little fella. Nearly as funny as his bewildered postman pat look when he puts the military style cap on. The security goons in fleeces are perfect, though. A fast-moving chihuahua could do him serious damage…
@Jim Ryan: very important to get these out and vote
@Jim Ryan: It’s likely the Greens will get decimated and FF FG will form the next government with some independents. Sinn Fein have pretty much imploded.
@honey badger: haha, what ever you do though, don’t call him a far right nazi, nor a bewildered one, for that matter – he and his fans would get very upset
@honey badger:
You’d imagine just seeing your pin-up Kamala getting her ass handed to her on a plate by the Don would have put some manners on you, but apparently not!
@Jonn: Imagine rushing to deflect for nazi smurf! Well done, Jonn. ;)
@Jonn: It’s called democracy, people can vote for whomever they like and if people vote FG and FF back into Government, then so be it, not everyone will agree, but everyone will have to accept it.
@Jonn: right there John. FF/FG well aware how fickle tge public are. Wave a few promises like multi year pension increases and the sheep fall for it.
Is his bringing his Kamala Harris hat ?
@Michale Kane: he better get some lessons from Monica lewinsky before he heads to the Whitehouse for paddy’s day, to make up for what he said about Trump last week!!!! I hope it’s good and cheesy for the little twerp!!!
The one thing the greens got right.Roderick o Gorman announced 29th November for the election.That was after Simon Harris told him.He couldn’t wait to tell everyone as if he was the one calling it so childish just like his predecessor
Zoom call anyone?
Cabal think in.
@087 bed: What about Cobalt?
Any chance he might stay there
FFG are in trouble and they know it, they see how Americans wanted there borders protected and put the people first, our shower didn’t do that and now the price is going to be heavy, anyone you talk to has nothing good to say about ffg
Maybe it’s time to take a leaf out of USA vote and vote in S F and give them a chance I am not affiliated to any party
@The Black Horse: how’s that a leaf out of USA sfein are far far left wokies, god people never learn
@The Black Horse:
If Mary Lou can not control the clowns and worse in Sinn fein.
How could we trust her to run a country?
@The Black Horse:
Why? Sinn Fein want to flood working class areas with refugees in order to promote social unrest.
@H Woo: Sinn Fein cannot be trusted on immigration . End of .
@The Black Horse: No one can say SF we’re terrible in government, so any predictive calling out is purely speculative, where say FF have been in or around power for 100 years and well we don’t have any of the things we need to improve living standards for the electorate over the next 50 years, so there’s that. Cant vote for them tho, they want all of the middle classes money. Unless I see them build something roads, trains, etc. Then maybe.
Roll on the Election, it’s going to be a Bonfire of the Vanities.
I can’t wait to vote for FG on the 29th
I give the Greens credit for what they achieved.
Sadly they have been taken over by gender ideology and open borders movements , which will prove fatal
Hungary is a beautiful country, a safe country, with a low crime rate, for obvious reasons
A masochist fir sure. Whipped already by Trump, Harris goes again!
Couldn’t be prouder of our great leader :)
Are the poor greens whining now? Looks good and them.
Country going into a General Election, does anybody know of Cobalt is running. Surely Harris should have the courage of his convictions & name them, rather than people been mislead & voting for Cobalt. Who is Cobalt ?
@SV3tN8M4: Not naming cobalt works in the government’s favour, so it’s unlikely that they would name him now before an election. It’s leaves an element of doubt over anybody in opposition that votes against FFG agenda, NATO involvement etc.
Good to see him sticking up to fascism
@Brian D’Arcy:
Will the Shinners refuse to attend the St Patrick day celebrations in the white house next year as a protest.?
@Brian D’Arcy: Yes, Trump is shaking in his shoes!
Bye bye agenda 2030 Trump won
And European psico will be suffer
If ya sleep with dogs you get up with fleas
The greens did not give one fig about the public the tried to enshrine their policies I statutes
But now they discover they we’re just being used as the pawns
have your say