When the south wind hits the Atlantic coast as it did this week, the sheer power of nature on display is breathtaking. Is it any wonder that traditional musicians and poets were enthralled by An Gaoth Aneas? Perplexingly warm, yet enormously powerful, these winter storms build in the temperate mid-Atlantic, far to the south of our island, gaining momentum over hundreds of kilometres before crashing into the south and west coast. Facing directly into the tempest, Inchydoney beach in west Cork is both a beautiful and terrifying place to witness the full force of the Atlantic.
We have long realised the tourist potential of our coasts, but what about the energy potential? Imagine harnessing this Atlantic energy efficiently and on an industrial scale to become an energy exporter. The potential of Ireland’s Atlantic territory to turn this country from an energy importer to a European renewable energy superpower is enormous.
Granted it would take huge investment, transformative thinking and an appetite for large-scale infrastructural ambition, but the Atlantic is a resource like no other.
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