Daniel Sammon lives in Renvyle Co Galway. To date, he is the author of six books including a book of poetry.
He’s a graduate of NUIG where he received a Master’s degree in Writing in 2017. Prior to that, he received Certificates of Distinction in Legal Studies, Self-Employed Accountancy & Taxation, and Creative Writing in the Open College and Kilroy’s College in Dublin. He walked across Ireland from Renvyle to the GPO in Dublin in 2009 to celebrate the defeat of the British Army and the Black & Tans by the IRA in the War of Independence and the eventual Freedom of Ireland or at least the 26 counties.
To find out what it may have been like for St Patrick in 441 AD, he slept overnight on his own under the stars on the summit of Croagh Patrick in 2015 and wrote a book about his experiences.
Today he is a tour driver taking passengers on history, heritage, and scenic tours mainly in Connemara as well as other parts of Ireland wherever people may wish to go.

A Short Story

By Daniel Sammon   MA

Inspiration from a little River

As an elderly man is relaxing on his newly-erected deck outside the sliding door at the back of his rural cottage in Connemara, he’s getting on in years. He’s enjoying the same scene that Francis Bacon enjoyed here in 1929. As a nineteen years old artist Bacon brought his brushes, paint and palette with him when he stayed in this cottage with his friend Eric Allden. It was the same view from the back room looking out the window at this scene that apparently inspired Bacon’s first oil painting: Trees at the Sea which is now reputedly valued at over one million euro. The big 7 zero is fast approaching, leaving lots of wisdom and good health in its wake. The elderly man is reflecting on those decades which were very good to him.

A little river bordering the perimeter of his cottage grounds is gurgling away like mad. It doesn’t know where it’s rushing to but it can’t wait to get there. He thinks: ‘Did I not meet many men down through the years who were in a mad rush to get somewhere, just like the river I am now listening to. Silly men who enter this world without a shirt on their back or shoes on their feet! Their toes and their fingers are counted and if they have the correct number, that brings much happiness and joy to their immediate and extended family. And then . . . they grow up!’

His cottage is just finished the renovation job that began just as the lockdown for Covid-19 was declared. Now for the first time in about sixteen weeks the pubs can re-open again, though many of them won’t consider it viable at all due to restrictions, particularly in relation to social distancing. As he contemplates what he will do with his newly-renovated cottage he draws inspiration from the little river that’s gurgling away like mad to get to its destination.

Right now it is a physical feature in its own right and has been for a long time. It is even recorded on the Ordnance Survey Ireland map as well as Griffith’s Valuation map of Co Galway which was completed in July 1856.  What will happen to the water that is right now making a pleasant sound as it swirls its way in a somewhat semi-circular fashion delineating the curtilage of his cottage property? By its very nature even if it wanted, it couldn’t remain static where it is. When it reaches Gurteen Pier about a kilometre away it will then become part of the sea and will be instantaneously subsumed as a miniscule part of the Atlantic Ocean, no longer being anything in its own right, merely a tiny part of something much larger.

The beautiful melodic sounds that it is now producing will be replaced by other identical symphonies until they too are replicated ad infinitum. Therein lays the inspiration: Unlike the river, he can stay where he is, at least for the time being.

No doubt if he wanted he would get tenants for this newly-renovated cottage with its rippling river, gurgling gorgeously, making melodic music ever so endearing to the ear. He has no inclination or necessity to be rushing off like the river to another place or another level. He likes it where he is and is enjoying the ambience and the serenity of this beautiful and tranquil location. He has the correct number of fingers and toes and that brings much happiness and joy to him and to those near and dear to him.

No, he will keep the cottage for himself but not to live in it. He has his own house up the road, five minutes away in the middle of the village. He will keep it for writing the odd bit of poetry; after all he will soon be ready to publish his second book of poems. He will also keep it for maybe finishing off his first novel as well as more pieces of non-fiction which is probably the genre dearest to his heart. Though the water that made such melodic sounds has now passed on, the elderly man continues to enjoy his newly-renovated cottage until his time will also come to pass on.  He will then no longer be a physical presence but like the small river he too will become part of a much larger scheme of things in the universe.