This interview took place in 2001:
We’ve decided to award this slot to two personalities this month; Noreen and Maeve have just arrived back from their epic adventure in the southern hemisphere.
They have provided us with much entertainment during their months away with their dispatches on the Currane.net message board. Now they are back amongst us.
Welcome home Noreen and Maeve!
To read Noreen’s interview click here.
| Name: | Maeve Cafferkey |
| Age: | 22 |
| Family details/links with the area: | My parents come from and live in Achill. I have three brothers and a sister and a dog. |
| Where do you live? | I’m supposed to be living at home with my parents but I often find myself stranded in The Compass late at night, so I sleep there the odd night. |
| Tell us about your travels: | The excitement really began when we left the fruit-farm in April. Our first adventure was when we rented a car and drove along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. The scenery here was gorgeous and there were parts that really reminded us of home… with the heather landscape and the cliffs. This was our first time driving properly in Australia, and my driving experience speaks for itself while Noreen’s “nice and easy” pace made us miss our ferry! So I spent my time telling her to speed up a bit and she was telling me to slow down. And both of us thought that we were the best drivers ever!! We headed to Sydney from here to go to the Kylie Minogue concert on May 10th, and it was a great show – Kylie was brilliant! And I’m not a fan or anything, but we had a mighty night. From Sydney we went to New Zealand. Noreen had to be out of the country by the end of May as her visa was up, so when we went to New Zealand, she renewed her visa there for another three months. We rented another car in New Zealand, and we drove aimlessly around the south island before we landed in Queenstown. I know not everybody is interested in this, but the road we took in getting to Queenstown was the worst road in the world. It was what the Irish would call a bog road, but it went over a mountain range, going up and down through the mountains and we only had a tiny bit of petrol. We were sure that we would perish on Dansey’s Pass, but luckily after 5 hours of second gear driving we arrived safely on a tarred road. That was by far the scariest thing that I have done since the driving test. Queenstown was where we went on the Luge… we took a ski lift to the top of a mountain and then got into these go-carts and raced down the mountain! It was mental craic but as I said earlier, Noreen is a cautious driver, so she took her time racing down while I was such an Irvine wannabe! Then I took the plunge and did a bungee jump – 440 feet – and that was classic! There was an eight second freefall before I bounced back up and so for the first few seconds I was thinking “Yeah!! I’m great! I jumped!”, and then I still had time to panic before the rope tightened, so it was really scary, but worth it! We even went ice-skating in New Zealand, but after an hour of wet and sore bums we quit. We can’t be cut out for EVERYTHING can we?! We left New Zealand and flew into Perth. We met up with my brother Eamon here and all three of us went job searching. We all found a nice sales job and we all got on well in the interview and the following day when the time came to start the job, we ended up having to go from door to door selling teddy bear bookends. Fifteen minutes into the job I quit, Noreen lasted 2 hours and Eamon lasted the whole day. We were never so embarrassed to be selling anything in our lives. That experience alone made us want to leave Perth, so we did. I went on a tour to Alice Springs in the centre of the country, while Eamon and Noreen flew to Darwin in the north. On my travels I learned an awful lot about the Aboriginals, about their survival and their demise over the past 200 years. I did a tour of the Ayers Rock, which was mind-blowing. I never thought that it would hold me like it did. I still can’t begin to explain the greatness of it. After this experience, I flew to Darwin to meet Eamon and Noreen. We went to Kakadu National Park a couple of days later and we had the time of our lives. Climbing, swimming, trekking, living life to the max every minute of every day. It was exhilarating being there and it was with sorry hearts that we left Kakadu and headed back to the concrete jungle again. We celebrated Eamon’s 21st in Darwin and the following day we flew to Cairns to do the diving course that we had planned for months. The Great Barrier Reef was breathtaking; we couldn’t get enough dives in. And again, we hated the thought of going back to the busy town of Cairns; we loved the peace and quiet of the ocean. In Cairns I did a parachute jump with Eamon while Noreen went ballooning. Now that was fantastic! It wasn’t as scary as the bungee jump because I didn’t have to jump, but it went on forever… I freefell for about 45 seconds and then landed like a pro! Mary Carmel Gallagher, who had been to Australia a couple of years ago, recommended that we take Uncle Brian’s tour from Cairns, so we did. It took us to the surrounding rainforests where we spent a great day learning even more about how the animals and the people survived the climates. A couple of days later, we were all supposed to go white-water rafting, but we slept in and missed the bus, so we put it down to fate and continued on our travels. Our next stop was the Whitsunday Islands off Australia’s east coast, where we spent 3 days lounging on a yacht, living the high life! We stopped on different islands for a lounge in the sun or even a snooze and we jumped off the yacht at our leisure for a swim in the warm tropical waters. It was absolute heaven, but three days was enough for me. The boredom would have got the better of me after that! Fraser Island was our next stop, an island of complete sand with those fierce dingoes roaming around the place. Here we rented a four-wheel drive and bopped and bumped our way around the island. I must now say that here on Fraser Island, my excellent driving capabilities and experience showed their worth and I proved myself to be one of the finest drivers of my generation!! In my head anyway! And then it was back to Sydney for our last couple of days where we stayed with Shaun Kilbane from Saula. We left Australia and headed to Bangkok for a couple of days and then flew to Koh Samui, one of the islands off Thailand. From Koh Samui we headed to Koh Pha-Ngan where Noreen spent a day diving while I rented a three-speed scooter and motored my way around the island! I gave Noreen a spin on the back of the scooter going home one night and we were going uphill when the engine conked and the two of us fell off the bike. So much for my driving skills! We headed back to Bangkok again, where we went to a friendly football match between Thailand and Manchester United, and that was a mighty match… the Thai people are dotes! So then we headed to Noreen’s sister Maura in London and spent a couple of days around London, before landing home! Home sweet home! |
| What were the highlights of your trip? | For me, the desert between Perth and Alice Springs was a highlight of my trip. Kakadu National Park just out of Darwin was also a place that will stay with me forever. It’s a coincidence that both these places cost nothing… it was the feeling that I got in these places that made it so good for me; learning about the land, experiencing the bush and the desert, exploring places, being filthy all the time… material things were of no relevance and that made those places appeal to me the most. |
| What were the low points? | I hated New Year’s Eve… I love the way we celebrate it here with the whole family and friends and neighbours and hugging and kissing. I wouldn’t have it any other way. |
| What did you most miss about home while away? | My family, my car, my bed and older people. We hadn’t much contact with older people while we were away, the circles that we found ourselves in were mostly backpacker circles, so I missed the presence of older people. |
| What was it like spending so much time with Noreen? | It was an experience. Noreen is very adaptable, so any situation that we found ourselves in Noreen was always graceful in her dealing with it. She’s always up for a laugh, and she embraces new experiences with gusto! She has a very easy presence, which makes her a delight to be with and she finds the funny side of things to every disaster of which there were many! Even in Australia, where we’d have spent a month looking at each other, if the time came for us to separate for a while, I’d only be walking away from her and I’d be missing her already. She is a mighty cook, which suited me down to the ground! And she’s great at keeping a tossed room, which didn’t suit me down to the ground at all until we moved into the same room and I began to learn the beauty of not tidying your room. She’s a great guru! And we sang… and sang… and sang. We sang our way around the world. We didn’t need to know the words or the beat, we just sang whatever tune came into our heads and we kept singing. For hours. Without stopping. Without caring. Without worrying. It was exhilarating being with her. I can’t deal with her not being beside me all the time now, it’s weird. Except for the week that I was in the desert, we probably spent an hour apart every week, if even the hour, so it’s tough not having her there. I find myself talking away to myself now, thinking that she’s there, so it will be a big adjustment to make getting used to being apart. |
| Profession, past/present employment details: | Pass… I used to be a lot of things but I’m just trying to sort out what I’m going to do for the future now. |
| What do you like about Currane? | The pace of the place, the attitude of the people towards the place, and The Compass Bar (my home away from home). |
| How would you improve the area? | To improve the area, I would issue honorary citizenship to myself. That’s all that’s needed for the place to be improved really…. oh yeah and the roads. I’d get Fine Gael to come in and put in proper roads. |
| Favourite place/view: | In the whole world, my favourite view is a sunset over any horizon. Just land or sea and the sky, with the sun setting |
| Favourite time of year/weather: | My birthday is my favourite time of year (September 23rd.. !!). I love bad weather lashing against you with the wind knocking you everywhere. Sideways rain I could do without, but you have to take the good with the bad |
| Favourite story/folklore: | Pass… Again, I don’t have a favourite story. |
| Favourite saying: | “Mol an óige agus tiocfaidh sí”. It’s a fairly well known saying, but it’s a good one. The meaning behind it is to praise the youth so they’ll prosper rather than being dogmatic towards them. What’s the point in giving out to a child? |
| Place you’ve most enjoyed travelling to (and why): | Currane. It’s just the best place ever! |
| Favourite book: | There’s none that I would call my favourite of all. |
| Favourite music: | Traditional Irish stuff. |
| Favourite song (Irish): | Mo Ghile Mhear. |
| Favourite film: | One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, followed by the Godfather Trilogy. |
| Favourite drink: | Water. |
| Favourite food: | I’ve taken quite a fancy to Thai food lately, so that’s my favourite at the moment. |
| Favourite type of night out in the area: | Anywhere there’s singing and dancing. |
| What sports do you enjoy: | I’ve never tried a sport that I didn’t enjoy. |
| Which teams do you support: | St. Vincents…!! |
| Which person would you most like to meet living or dead: | Bono or W.B. Yeats, it’s between the two of them. |
| Any important plans/resolutions for the future: | I would like to wake up laughing every day. |
To read Noreen’s interview click here.
You must be logged in to post a comment.