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Diary Contact/Donate
Latest news -
July 27th 2004. Steven has called off his Irish trek and is returning to
Cornwall in the next week. He had spent the previous ten days in Mayo,
making himself available for fund-raising activities for the Make a Wish
children's charity. Together with a Westport hotelier, he had also been
researching local off-road horse trails.
The major reason for his change of plan is the difficulty of travelling
on Irish roads with a horse. He was taken aback at the level of traffic
here - even on side roads - and was shocked at the bad standard of
driving. He had several close calls and he reckoned it was only a matter
of time before he or "Murphy" became victims of an
accident.
He made some wonderful contacts and enjoyed terrific hospitality during
the six weeks and the 800 kms of the country he traversed. Steven will consider making
another attempt but only if he gets substantial sponsorship to enable
him to ride a safe off-road tour of Ireland. This would involve having a
backup crew, vehicle and horse box.
With his experience, he would be in a good position to advise national
and local tourist organisations on the best way to develop
horse-trekking routes and holidays.
In the next few months he will be writing up his Irish experiences and
putting up more photos on his website.
Steven has a new
website - www.pilgrimhorse.info -
see it for details and photos of the Irish trek which he started in mid
June 2004.
Contact myself, Jim, at info1@planorganic.com
if you would like to phone
him on the road.
Steven is looking for a principal sponsor for the Ireland trek. Any other offers of assistance
and hospitality would be welcome.
You can send donations directly to;
.
Steven's "Four Corners Irish Pilgrimage"
Acc. no. 30067094.
AIB,
Castletown Berehaven,
Co.Cork,
Ireland.
All donations will be
acknowledged and final distribution accounted for.
February 2004
Steven gets terrific support for his forthcoming trip to Ireland
from celebrity author CuChullaine O'Reilly of the Long Riders Guild. Click
here for full text of entertaining and educational letter
News November 2003 Steven
didn't make it to Ireland this year. He is hoping to do so in Summer
2004. In the meantime, he is working on typing up his own diary and
developing some web pages. He is often seen riding the byways and bridle
paths of western Cornwall. Colina, now nick-named "Murphy",
is healthy and strong and doesn't seem to be too put out by the change
in climate from Andalucia. The Arab horse shares his grazing paddocks,
beside the Pirates' rugby grounds in the centre of Penzance, with two
characterful Shetland ponies.
Contact Steven by email; stevenson.oconnor@tesco.net and at;
Steven O'Connor
5, Coinagehall Place
Penzance
Cornwall
TR 18 4 AZ
Tel. 00 441 736 332197
News
May 2003 Steven and his horse Colina will be coming to Ireland this summer. He is
calling his journey, In search of St. Piran.
St Piran is the patron saint of Cornwall. There is much fascinating
folklore about this 5th Century saint who reputedly arrived from Ireland
on the north Cornish shore on a floating millstone! He is associated
with St Kieran of Clare Island and Ciaran of Saighir and Clonmacnoise.
It is also said that he lived with St. Senan of Scattery Island for a
period. St. Senan also has a strong connection with Cornwall with a
church dedicated to him near Land's End and an inlet nearby called
Sennen Cove. The townland in which our family lived in Tipperary was
called Kiltinan - Cill tSenan - the church of St.Senan (I liked the name
- and the history - so much that I named my son Senan).
Steven will start his journey from Penzance, and cross to Ireland
via Fishguard/Rosslare. He will make his way, for a start, through
Wexford, Waterford, Tipperary and Kilkeny but intends to do almost a
complete circuit of Ireland, including Northern Ireland.
After a visit here to West Cork, he will also follow the route of the
famous, March of O'Sullivan Bere, from Beara to Leitrim.
Preparations are in train already. If you would like to help with
publicity, hospitality, ideas or indeed with financial contributions,
contact Steven at steven@oconnor5203.fsnet.co.uk
January 13th 2003. Steven
is now developing his own website and will complete what I started here.
He is collating a large selection of photographs and diary entries for
it. It should be quite an entertainment when it's finished. I will let
you know as soon as it goes online.
Over Christmas, he showed me the presentation he did for Lyonesse Trading
which was in the form of a series of story-boards illustrated with photographs.
They will really look great on the website.
He won't be resting for too long on his laurels. A journey/pilgrimage
to Ireland is on the cards for the near future. If you would like further
information or indeed wish to donate to the enterprise, contact him
at; stevenson.oconnor@tesco.net
Read the week-by-week story of Steven's journey
through Spain, Portugal, France, and England.
Click here for the
full account.
Latest News Click
here 10th September.
The travellers arrive to a hero's welcome in Penzance!!!!
Click on picture for full-size photo
Needs
financial help urgently. Donate
O'Connor Don Quixote
(see below for explanation
of the quixotic title).
My younger brother, Stevenson William O'Connor, set off from
Andalucia in southern Spain, in the middle of May, 2002, on a marathon
solo, horse-back ride.
His intent is to travel through Spain, Portugal and France to England
and Wales and finally, if all goes well, to Ireland, probably arriving
here on the Beara Peninsula in early September.
Steven bought an Arab horse, saddle, tack and supplies in Granada, in
May, and set off on the 3,000 km. journey northwards into the Sierra
Morena mountains.
It has been tough going at times, often walking, leading the horse and
he's had some incredible adventures on the way (he put the heart cross-wise
on me recently, describing a Blair Witch-type incident whilst camping
for the night in a forest).
And much more.
He arrived in Santiago de Compostela, in north west Spain, on the 30th
June. Having paid his respects at the famous Cathedral - otherwise he
was not greatly impressed by the pilgrimage city - he is now heading
east following one of the main pilgrim routes. Officially now a "peregrinatio"
- a small fee had to be paid to the Church for this ancient
priviledge - he can now stay at pilgrim hostels for a modest fee.
Stephen, who grew up in Tipp., Ireland, with horses, never lost his
love for them, and had kept a horse, even in difficult times, at his
then home in North Devon (he now lives in Cornwall).
For years, he has talked about doing a long-distance horse trek and
we, his family and friends, listened patiently, even condescendingly
at times, to his outlining of an epic journey to take place "in
the future".
"Many dream, few do", we thought - "Steven is just not
the travelling type". Until a few years ago, he had never been
further afield than Ireland and England!
He has confounded us all and we are delighted for him and not a little
proud.
There was perhaps a catalyst for his decision to take off at this time:
he suffers from a psychiatric illness, Bi-Polar Disorder, which was
only recently diagnosed after a critical bout of depression.
He is
now, after much care and with the aid of some current medication, managing his condition very well.
Steven feels a deep sense of gratitude to all those that helped him through a difficult
time and he feels he would like to express this by helping to raise money
for mental health causes.
By undertaking this trek
he is hoping to kill two birds with the one stone - fulfill a lifetime's
ambition and help some good charities in the process.
He
can be contacted on the road by mobile phone, at 00 44 78 666 122
33 - from Ireland. From the UK - 078 666 122 33
I can give further details by phone, 00 353 27 70 71 7 (Ireland) or email,
info@planorganic.com.
We have a bank
account set up for the venture at:
Donate to,
Steven's Four Corners Irish Pilgrimage
Acc. no. 30067094.
AIB,
Castletown Berehaven,
Co.Cork,
Ireland.
All donations will be
acknowledged and final distribution accounted for.
Note on Don Quixote
Don Quixote, the
epic 17th C. book by Cervantes has just been voted the most
"meaningful book of all time" in a poll of 100 famous authors,
including Norman Mailer, Nadine Gordimer, Milan Kundera and Salmom
Rushdie. "The one novel you should read before you die" they
insist.
The image of the aging, chivalrous, slighly cracked Don Quixote, in full
armour astride Rozinante, attacking windmills - which he's mistaken for
"monstrous giants" - looked on by his faithful
"errant Squire", Sancho Panza, is one of the most enduring,
and endearing, of the last three hundred years.
I have always loved the book (and the character) myself, but, like most,
never managed to finish it. I have an old, 18th C. copy (1761, T.Smollett,
trans., in four volumes, London - my Vol. 1 is missing - can anyone help?)
which I often dip into.
Some years ago there was an extraordinary local production of the musical,
Man of La Mancha, in Clonmel, Co.Tipperary, that my son, Senan and I
enjoyed hugely. We exchanged lines, and songs from it for years.
Later, because of my involvement in an anti-windmill campaign in
Tipp.(against the siting of huge multiple units on the historic
mountain,Slievenamon, The Mountain of the Fair Women of Fionn -
incidentally, the developer was an Ansbacher acc. holder, Ken O'Reilly
Hyland) I was nicknamed, Don Quixote. I didn't mind in the least.
When more acid wags twisted this to Don Fiasco, or Don Fiasco de la
Mancha, following a few initial hiccups in our campaign, I minded that a
little, but, in the end had the last laugh - the wind-power station was
stopped dead in its tracks.
So, it was with a sense of continuity and pride that, when Steven announced he was setting off on an epic horse-ride across Spain,
I applauded him warmly, encouraged him enthusiastically and christened
him immediately,
O'Connor Don Quixote (our family, we think, is descended from
the O'Conor Don).
Not intending in any way to emulate
the Cervantes' fictional character, there are still, and will be more, similarities between
Steven's adventures and that of the "errant knight". But you'll have to wait for the book, perhaps,
to
hear all the tales!
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