The Positive Fires of West Kerry

 The west is on fire. It reads almost far fetched but these are the type of headlines that roared through the media all week. It's very interesting because I can post a topic and examine the thread very easily. When you have your eyes wide open and you're a certain type of individual then you can take a certain stance. In every argument there are two sides to the story. When you are trying to understand something, maybe a person of virtue would not take sides but it seems to me that the crowd is hell bent on anarchy. Sheep farmers in west Kerry are good people. I know some. A vivid memory I have is being in a rib off sauce creek in Brandon bay fishing for mackerel. We could hear this faint roaring from the cliffs, a kind of forgotten language but somehow it was also familiar. It took us a while to figure it out but then I could see this faint person walking on the cliff overlooking sauce creek. It was a sheep farmer roaring in Irish at his dog, who was out in front of him herding his sheep. It was too far to catch on film but it was a spectacle to watch. A respect grew inside of me for this type of man. So with years come more experiences in the hills watching these men herding their sheep in early summer to shear and manage their livelihood. 

Grose Fire, Rossbeigh, February 27th, 2023

Hilltop grose fires have been lit for generations. It's very simple really when you burn the heather and bog, new growth appears. This provides a rich food source for sheep which is badly needed in bad land. These farmers have not got rich green pastures and this practise is seen as vital to fatten sheep and lambs. It's that simple. Sheep farming is one of the big industries in West Kerry and that is a simple fact. So what we have is now a social media egotistical environmental fascist cohort. People are so intent on proving their love for nature and planet earth that they would condemn not only farmers but fishermen also. It's obvious to me that people are lost and we are now attacking each other. Farmers of West Kerry got condemned as criminals all week because of these fires. We had a mob mostly of city people condemning people who live and work the land that these fires are on. So it was kind of portrayed like we had a gang of arsonists roaming West Kerry for the ruination of vast areas of land and causing a mass extinction of species.  It's just not true or based on any fact. It's real fiction being created by the media. Now I am not saying that these fires do not have an environmental impact or they are not dangerous. It's logical to think that these fires obviously will have an impact on the eco-system but who am I to tell a sheep farmer how to raise his herd or manage his land. Would I go into a doctor's surgery and tell the surgeon how to do his job? No I would be arrested and rightly so. So all of a sudden people know how to run a sheep farm and not only that they know the ecological impacts of fires in peat-land areas. We have thousands of environmentalists on Facebook and Instagram. 

Tralee Bay, March 1st, 2023

So why do I think I know what this is really about. This isn't about fires. This isn't about the environment. In my opinion this is all virtue signalling. While humanity burns in every corner of every town and village of Ireland, we need something to love. We don't adore a god anymore, we don't fear a god, so we love ourselves and the material world around us. Nobody loves the hills of west Kerry like I do. I have peaked all of them. I walk on my own and think to myself how beautiful the place is but that doesn't mean I can tell the people who live here for generations how to manage the land. I simply don't know. I'm not a farmer and the day I am maybe then I will have an opinion on it. What is very evident to me is in all the media not once will you hear from a sheep farmer. The poor people are afraid of their lives and our culture here in Ireland is being eroded away by a nihilistic western ideology. We have forgotten who we truly are but I believe these farmers of West Kerry have not. They are trying to live their lives in peace and harmony. Leave them be and maybe we should all clean our own house before attacking theirs. Peace, Love and compassion. ❤🙏