Aran Islands
Marooned on Inishmaan, one of the Aran Islands
I flew with Bunny, the love of my life, to the Aran Islands with the idea of doing a fashion photo shoot for a New York Department store. Our pilot was a stunt pilot who had just come off filming World War I movie The Blue Max in Ireland with George Peppard, James Mason and Ursula Andress (star of the first James Bond movie, Dr. No). Unfortunately, there was no air strip on Inishmaan in those days so, after some hesitation, we landed on the beach and could not get off until - eventually - the pilot had the bright idea of taking off on the wet sand as the tide went out. Up to then it looked as if I would be paying off a marooned aircraft for the rest of my life. I was 20 at the time.
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Life was tough on Inishamaan in those days
Many people have a romantic notion about Ireland but the truth of the matter is that life for many was searingly tough - and even tougher when you lived on a wind and rain blasted island off the West Coast of Ireland. When you wanted to send your cattle to the market, they had to swim to the ferry. When your children were in their early teens they emigrated. This picture, taken in 1964, says it all. The Aran Islands are beautiful but also can be brutal. Still, harsh or not, the Aran Islands captivated me and led me to create Fitzduane's island.
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Another of Tom Chance's great Inishmaan Photographs
We were looked at with some suspicion when we turned up on the beach of Inishmaan - the center of three islands located some miles off the West Coast of Ireland. What strikes me about this photo - apart from the fact that the dog seemed quite unfazed by our arrival - is that it could have been taken a hundred years earlier and still would have looked much the same. The Aran Islands were a very traditional place back in 1964. These days they have TV, an airstrip on the big island and a booming tourist trade. I was glad I saw them then.
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Taking off at an angle is not advised
After we landed, the locals appeared above the beach like Indians - Native Americans - in an old Western. We were, we were told, the first aircraft ever to land on the island of Inishmaan. We were then helped to turn the aircraft so we could take off on the wet sand into the wind as the tide went out. The bad news was that our pilot had to take off with the plane canted to one side. And the beach curved. This was not a good situation and is positively something you should not try at home or even allow your ex-wife to do. The main noise after we took off and desperately tried to climb - was from the stall warning klaxon. Not enough air speed it said for what seemed an eternity. Fortunately, I did not know exactly what it meant (though I had a suspicion). It meant we were going to stall and crash into the sea and drown unless we could get our airspeed up. We just about did - mainly through willpower, I suspect, or I would not be writing this.
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