They're nearly all back now from the holiday weekend - from the Midlands and Loughcrew, from the South and from the West. There, the low tide finds walkers out on the long sandy expanse of Carna Beach. They were not alone: as well as a couple of young men hitting golf balls, a group of eight fine Connemara ponies and two foals is seen in the distance trotting down the grassy slopes to the sea. When they hit the sand, the pace quickens and they gallop along the beach, the sound rolling over the sand to the enthralled onlookers. They cross the beach in high spirits, swerving here and there among the rocks and pools, then head out towards Finish Island, the young ones struggling to keep up. The island is accessible on foot at low tide, but even though the tide has turned, the ponies wade out into the water up to their bellies. (The foals must be swimming at this stage.) Then they gallop up the beach at the other side, and off up into the dunes and out of sight. As our strollers continue along the beach, an area of disturbed dry sand shows the perfect imprints of the rounded hindquarters and smaller depression of the head where two ponies have rolled. The following day, on the same beach, the owner is seen leading two mares and foals back from the island in preparation for the famous Maam Cross Fair. They are great swimmers, he says. And love galloping on the sands in the salt water, which is very good for them.
The sight of such energy and beauty, the wide horizons, the smell of the sea, and the warm (yes, it was warm) autumn sun are very good for the humans, too. Carna, to relatives of our observers, meant Mongans. It was a fishing hotel, popular with many English colonels and the like. One or two well-known Irish families too. The children, for a long time afterwards, remembered the lovely garden and the chickens at the back, running free as chickens used to do. At one time, guests who came by train from Galway were met at Recess by sidecars for transport to the hotel. Bliss to city folk, especially the young. Then came the day when the horse was replaced by the petrol engine. One former guest remembers that the women then still wore the red skirt and shawl. This was in the mid-thirties.