the primary peoples of the island of Ireland. So there is a long connection between Ireland and Galicia. You could certainly feel that connection by the time with got to Galicia with that Naomhóg, and it got walked through the streets of Santiago. You got that real sense of coming home. The closer we got to Galicia as we went along the way there was a real sense of homecoming. It was really emotional in so many ways. It was my first time in Galicia and the first time for some of the other crew members as well. It was very emotional.
The Camino, the traditional walking version, is such a huge part of Christian faith. So many Irish people go as pilgrims to walk it. So to see that done by boat is something completely different.
Absolutely. As Danny says in the introduction, the pilgrimage to Santiago started when people couldn't go to Jerusalem and when they couldn't get to Rome. So they went to Santiago instead. In those days the trading routes were pretty busy. All the way from Ireland, down along the west Atlantic coast, Brittany and down to Southern France, and along the northern coast of Spain. Those routes were pretty busy. You could hitch a ride on a trading side that was heading to A Coruña, and when you got there you could walk the 75 kilometres to Santiago, and that would be your Camino. And that happened for a good few hundred years. Ireland has had a long sea-faring tradition. When the Vikings arrived in the Faeroe Islands there were Irish monks there before them. They had already landed there. There was a massive sea-faring tradition even among the monastics. They would go out in a skin-covered boat, throw away the oars, and let the wind or will of God blow them to wherever they were meant to go.
Given some of the things that are happening in the world that may not be the worst way to decide things!
We were actually in A Coruña the day that the Brexit vote was announced. So it was interesting that we had landed there and we were standing next to Breogán's Tower actually. In our mythology that's the tower that Míl looked out from and saw a land in the distance that he decided he wanted to come visit, which was Ireland. That day will always stand out in my mind.
Unfortunately during the course of making the film tragedy beset and the Naomhóg's captain Danny Sheehy lost his life when the boat capsized.
One of the things that we were aware of when filming and that the crew were very aware of, because they are seafaring men, was that any day that you set out to sea might be your last day. We were all very very aware of that. My cameraman would ask me how many more of the breakfasts were we going to film and I said we are going to film ever one of them because that cup of tea that the lads had this morning could be their last cup of tea. And then suddenly it's the most important breakfast of the entire story, but
you don't know that until something happens. We were very aware of the danger posed by the sea. Anybody that sets out in the morning is very aware of that. After the Camino ended, Danny and the crew decided to continue the journey further south the year after, in 2017. And they were joined by Liam Ó Maonlaí and Pádraigh Ó Duinnín, two very experienced Naomhóg rowers. It was a really capable crew, but they were finding the Portuguese coast was getting very treacherous between weather and coastal conditions so they decided to come inland and row the river instead, as they had done in the south of France to avoid the Bay of Biscay. Just as they were turning the headland coming into the Miño river, the river that divides Galicia from Portugal, and as they were coming in to go up the river they were hit by a rogue wave and the boat capsized. They all hung on to the boat, thank God, and they all made it to the beach and emergency services were there very quickly but somehow Danny lost consciousness and they pronounced him dead on the way to the hospital. They had been through so many challenges, but sometimes accidents happen at the least expected moment.
CinÉireann / February 2018 41
Danny Sheehy