Northern Ireland

'Boreens' into a hidden Ireland captured in a new book

The Gap Road in Co Clare. Picture by David Rice
The Gap Road in Co Clare. Picture by David Rice The Gap Road in Co Clare. Picture by David Rice

IRELAND'S thousands of narrow roads, or boreens, have been documented in loving detail by one Newry-born writer. Claire Simpson reports.

When David Rice was working as a photo-journalist in the US and China, he often dreamt of returning to Ireland.

"I used to long for the roads of Ireland," he said.

"When I returned for a visit once the plane banked quite sharply and I saw the patchwork of little roads. I thought 'some day this will be mine'."

In 1980, Mr Rice returned from his work abroad and began taking photos of Ireland's network of boreens, which the author calls "the roads to God-knows-where".

Over the decades, he took around 170,000 photos - a "crazy" figure, he joked.

He later managed to narrow down his photographs to the 600 which appear in the book.

"Every chance I get I'm out there photographing them," he said.

"If you look up an ordinance map you see tiny cracks and those are the little roads. They are the roads no tourist goes to but the locals know."

His new book 'The Little Roads of Ireland', is a celebration of lesser-trod routes, from mountain roads to the smallest boreens.

The author of 10 books, Mr Rice was raised outside Newry "with a view from the Cooley Mountains".

Now living in Co Clare in a house overlooking the River Shannon, he said one of his favourite photographs is one which re-creates a cherished memory.

The image shows horses in a field under a view of Slieve Foye - the highest of the Cooley mountains.

"That was nearly the view from my bedroom window as a child," he said.

"We used to think it was like Vesuvius with a flat top.

"Another (favourite) has Carlingford Mountain - Slieve Foye in the Cooley Mountains - and Killowen Mountain which is part of the Mournes. I also like one of a family of cows gazing at you. One of the chapters is on the creatures that you meet along the road. I had great fun with that.

"I maintain wherever you go, you find a farm dog slinking out."

The book is divided into sections which cover different roads, including pilgrim paths, famine roads and routes which run under a tunnel of trees.

Mr Rice said he is particularly fond of boreens - roads defined as having grass growing in the middle and being too narrow for two cars to pass.

"One of the things I tell people is if you're driving in Ireland, park the car and go up a side road," he said.

"The lovely thing about the little roads is you turn the corner and see a lovely scene then you go another two miles and see another lovely scene.

"It's the incredible variety that you get that I love."

Mr Rice said the smallest roads have their own special kind of magic.

"I maintain that these are the roads into a hidden Ireland," he said.

"Some of them are a thousand years or more. They were cow tracks originally."

The author said he was glad to have returned home.

"The best move I made was to move back to Ireland," he said.

"I am just in love with everything around the place."

'The Little Roads of Ireland', published by Mentor Books, is available now in all good bookshops.