and would pass around their drugs either in cigarette form, cakes or sweets".Īccording to Groden, the reality was far different, however, and the hippies generally kept to themselves. One local woman commenting on an RTE news programme of the time said "that they would go into our dance halls and cinemas.
#Dorinish island clew bay ireland free
Get ahead of the day with the morning headlines at 7.30am and Fionnán Sheahan's exclusive take on the day's news every afternoon, with our free daily newsletter.Įnter email address This field is required Sign Up With plans for the house put on hold Lennon suggested to his friend Sid Rawle that he set up a hippy commune on the island. And the next thing she was getting dive-bombed." And she kind of stayed too near the shore there, which wasn't the best idea. "She had a bad experience out here," he explains. According to Groden, Ono's visit to the island didn't go well however. Planning permission had been granted for a building on the island and plans for a house were drawn up. Lennon and Ono stayed in what is today Mulranny House Hotel. But sure, back then helicopters were like space ships." "Poor old Tommy Gibbons who lived over on Clynish said he remembered seeing the helicopter coming in across the hill. "The next time he arrived by helicopter and he arrived with Yoko," explains Groden. The Beatles made White Album, Lennon's relationship with Cynthia became strained and eventually he left her for another woman. The Romany caravan eventually found its way back to London. I found him sound but again we probably just discussed the scenery and saw a few birds and that." I brought him as a man who wanted a raft into the island. After, I heard it was John Lennon and even then I didn't know who they were. I brought him into it and I brought him out. "There was nothing to it," explains Quinn.
His memories of the day he met the famous Beatle are fairly vague and he is refreshingly unapologetic about his evident lack of veneration for the rock star.
Paddy Quinn, now 72,built the raft for Lennon. It must have been quite a sight to see a psychedelic Romany caravan drifting across the bay. He had it all painted psychedelic colours like the hippies do." They had a raft built and he brought a caravan out on the raft. "They arrived into Westport and then they got a boat. "The first people he came out with were his son Julian and his wife Cynthia," explains Kevin Groden, director of Clew Bay Sea Safaris. Although, there are no trees and it is fully exposed to the elements, on a sunny day it is nothing short of idyllic, with its view of Croagh Patrick and the tapestry of surrounding islands. The island is a funny little spot with two high peaks connected to each other by a causeway of rocks. Tired of Beatlemania and desperately seeking out places of refuge, Lennon dispatched an agent to Westport where, unsurprisingly, he outbid everyone there and snapped up the island of Dorinish for £1,700. Browne won the auction and, at £1,700, John Lennon had bought himself a County Mayo island.In 1967, John Lennon one day opened the London Telegraph to find that the Westport Harbour Board was selling an island in Clew Bay, Co Mayo. Taylor travelled to Westport, and, with thirty other farmers bidding for the island and discretion of paramount importance, the auctioneer advised Taylor to let his son, Michael Browne, a local solicitor, to do the bidding for him. When Taylor showed Lennon pictures, he told him to go buy it. The island fitted the bill – it was private and with the aid of jets and helicopters, it wasn’t much more than two hours from London. Dorinish was uninhabited and the two islets linked by a shale causeway reputedly held the best grazing land in the bay. Taylor eventually came across a 19-acre island in Clew Bay, County Mayo being sold by the Westport Harbour Commision. What he wanted was somewhere to get away from it all. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and with ‘Beatlemania’ a worldwide phenomenon. At the time, Lennon was at the height of his career with the release that year of the album Sgt. Fixit’ and often handled business matters like property deals for the ‘Fab Four’. Oh, and it mustn’t be more than two hours from London.” These were the words of The Beatles’ singer and songwriter John Lennon to Alistair Taylor, the personal assistant to the band’s manager, Brian Epstein, in 1967. “Alistair, I want you to buy me an island.
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