The importance of being an ernest Vespa

THE last in this series of featured authors at Banner Books in Ennistymon was Ryan Keith, who spoke of his progress around Ireland in 1997 on the seat of a Vespa motor scooter.

Sean Ryan of Fountain, near Ennis, lent his Lambretta as a prop to adorn the window for the event. According to shop owner, Gerry Harrison, the addition “became a talking point for passers by in Parliament Street, and attracted many people”.
Ryan christened his Vespa T5 Classic Ernest, after Cecily, in Oscar Wilde’s play, who says that “there is something in that name that seems to inspire absolute confidence”. 
As Ryan says, “It is a name for heroes. And a fitting name for my companion on such a journey as I now contemplated.”    
Among other objectives, this journey took in the sites of wrecks of the Spanish Armada. Many of the galleons, battered by storms, foundered along the coast of Antrim, Donegal and Sligo. In Belfast for Ryan’s first port-of-call, he paid the obligatory visit to the Ulster Museum, which has a section devoted to the events of 1588 and the downfall of Spanish naval might.
Having been parked outside, Ernest then set off with his rider on their pilgrimage, beginning with the Antrim coast and an obligatory sampling visit to Bushmills and then on to the Giant’s Causeway, where the Girona, which was powered by oarsmen as well as sails, was thrown against the rocks. Their journey was punctuated with stops along the route in pubs that welcomed Ryan, and by the search for B&Bs as the daylight fell.
“With Ernest beneath him, he rode on, pausing beside rocky shores, quiet coves and sandy strands where much of the fleet, with beautifully elaborate names which read like a Spanish dictionary, were blown onto their individual catastrophes. It is interesting to reflect on what happened to the tiny proportion of survivors. Apart from the crews of the ships on which hundreds were slaves, they included soldiers of the Spanish army who had seen service on the other side of the Atlantic.
“Ashore, most did not survive long and were butchered by loyalists of the Crown soon after clambering from the waves. Others did live a few days but their ultimate fate was imprisonment followed by a swing on the gallows,” Gerry outlined.
“A number of ships hit the coast of Clare, from the Aran Islands southwards to the mouth of the Shannon but the people of this county had similarly forgot their compassion. The fields of Spanish Point in West Clare became the location of a forest of gallows and gibbets. However, for reasons of time, Ryan Keith decided to turn east at Galway City, and is saving the wrecks of County Clare for a future journey,” he added.