OPINION (AN COLÚN): Westwards from Ireland into the blue wonder

A GOOD CROWD of us were treated to a very special evening on February 23 when Ken O'Sullivan came to Birr Theatre & Arts Centre.
Ken is one of the nicest and most down to earth people you could meet. His enthusiasm and love for nature is also infectious.
He's honest too. He told us about being reduced to tears when going through a difficult time in his life, during which he was trying to follow his dream but couldn't make a living from it. Overwhelmed by life's problems and practicalities he was reduced to tears.
But his inner resilience soon came to the fore again and he bounced back, going through what sounded like a crazy round of fundraising drives to pursue his dream.
Ken loves getting into the sea with a camera and filming the aquatic world. Out there in the pelagic wonder he feels rejuvenated, energised and content.
There were a lot of families in Birr Theatre and the children were brimful with interest and questions. It was lovely to experience this youthful enthusiasm and it kindled many memories of my own childhood many years ago.
Ken narrated his life's story and interspersed it with footage from his TV documentaries. Growing up in Kerry he imbibed a maritime, fishing culture and it's obvious that this upbringing has hugely influenced his adult life. I have little doubt that as he pursues the piscatorial attractions of the Atlantic the spirit, the character of the Kerry fishermen are present somewhere in his soul as well.
We saw a lot of very beautiful film footage in Birr Theatre accompanied by powerful classical music. The highlight for me was watching the cinematographer swimming with Blue Whales in the Azores. Backed by a majestic musical score the largest creatures on the planet looked splendid, their vast bulk resonating with a sense of peace and transcendence. Tears welled in my eyes and rolled down my cheeks, those happy tears of being mesmerised by the beauty of creation.
Another special moment was the section of swimming with feeding humpback whales. It was fascinating watching their method of feeding. Creating a vortex, a spiral of bubbles, they pool the trapped fish, krill, plankton, upwards, in this giant funnel and then start feeding. This method of hunting is called bubble-net feeding.
Another memorable moment was the footage of a spiral of circling basking sharks. The first thing I noticed was their mouths weren't open. This was unusual. Any picture I have ever seen of a basking shark its mouth has been gaping wide, feeding. We were watching extremely rare footage of these huge, peaceful creatures going through their mating ritual.
At the end of the show Ken pointed us towards Fair Seas, an excellent organisation which is definitely worth checking out. Fair Seas point out that in Ireland only 9.4% of our ocean is protected. They want to see this increase to at least 30% by 2030. By joining the Fair Seas campaign and signing the petition, you help build the political pressure on the Irish Government to publish new Marine Protected Area Legislation without delay.
Inspired by the Birr Theatre show I afterwards logged onto MUBI and watched Terrence Malick's “Voyage of Time”. Malick's philosophical musings mirror the sort of thoughts many of us have when we are looking at the Atlantic's majestic cetaceans. “Dear child,” it begins, “I remember, when I was young - how, at night, I'd go out on the lower road, look up at the stars and wonder - where we came from, and how things got set up, anyway - and where it all goes. It seemed there was something infinite - in the trees, the stones, in everything, everyone, something which lasts, beyond change, beyond time. As you watch these passing scenes, how does it seem to you? Do you wonder, too?”
As the viewer watches, mesmerised, images of creation, from the macrocosmic to the microcosmic, the narrator draws us into the mystical and the spiritual and the suffusion of the universe by the Spirit. “Why was there something rather than nothing?” the narrator asks. “From out of nothing - the beginning. The first stars. Singing. Countless new worlds...The Earth - Our home...When did dust become life?...Everywhere it can, life rushes in; restless; unsatisfied...Death - when did it first appear?...My child, you're awake; you rise from fire, stardust, infinite....How was it made - the good you love? Light. Perfection....Nothing stands still. Time - flowing. Every atom, every particle - blazing. The sun ascends. Ascension everywhere. Light. What binds us together, makes us one? - Love.”
Malick is another representative in that long line of American mystics, which includes Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, and Morten Lauridsen.