It is only those who have lived a long time in continental countries that
can fully appreciate the beauty of Irish cloud scenery. As a rule, insular
countries are richer in cloud scenery than continents. Any one who has
lived even in the western part of continental Europe knows that Great
Britain, owing to its being an island, is much richer in cloud scenery
than France; and the further east one goes, the drier the climate will be
found to be, the fewer the clouds, and consequently the less attractive
the sky.
Ireland being situated so far out in the "melancholy ocean" is, beyond all
European countries, a land of clouds, and it has to be admitted that she
very often has too much of them. But if these clouds frequently pour down
more rain than is necessary for the growth of crops, there is a certain
amount of compensation given by skyey glories they create; and marvellous
these glories sometimes are. It is not only at sunset or sunrise that
Irish cloud scenery is fine; for often during even a wet summer, when the
rain ceases for a time, and the sun appears, the sky becomes what it is
hardly incorrect to call a wonderland of beauty, with its "temples of
vapour and hills of storm." But the real glories of Irish cloud scenery
are its sunsets. Ireland is, beyond any other country perhaps in the
world, the land of gorgeous sunsets. Sometimes they are such wonders of
golden glory that even the most stolid peasant gazes on them with emotion.
As a rule, it is only in the latter part of summer and the first half of
autumn that Irish sunsets can be seen in their greatest beauty. Sometimes,
when the summer is very wet, fine sunsets are seldom seen; but in fine
weather they are generally such as can be seen in no other country. For
months during the fine summer and autumn of 1893, every sunset was a
wonder of indescribable beauty, with almost half the heavens a blaze of
golden clouds.