Posts Tagged ‘adventure canada’
Ireland’s Islands
Ireland’s Islands. The Aran Isles, the Skelligs, Inishbofin, Tory Island. What, with Irish music all the way? Yup, it was quite the adventure.
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Did someone mention Irish music? Here’s a 4:30 video I put together featuring the versatile Daniel Payne and Matt Malloy of the Chieftains. Some I shot at the Cliffs of Moher, but most happens at Matt Malloy’s pub in Westport on the west coast of the Emerald Isle. Payne was sailing as a musician with…
Read MoreWe’re looking for Arctic history in the wrong places
The June issue of the Literary Review of Canada finds Yours Truly responding to an LRC article published last month under the headline What Does Franklin Really Mean? This August, sailing with Adventure Canada, I am hoping to return to the site that marks John Rae’s discovery. Adriana Craciun is right to question the wisdom…
Read MoreVoyaging North at Arts on Queen
The above painting of a Scottish farm house, by Sheena Fraser McGoogan, forms part of a solo show called Voyaging North soon to launch in Toronto. A tenant-farmer ancestor of mine, one John McGugan (1726-84), lived in this house on the tiny island of Gigha. Voyaging North features a couple of dozen paintings of Scotland…
Read MoreInto the Northwest Passage
Readers of Fatal Passage may recall that a dozen years ago, with Cameron Treleaven and Louie Kamookak, I erected a plaque honouring Doctor John Rae at the spot where he discovered the final link in the Northwest Passage. This August, I’ll be sailing Into the Northwest Passage with Adventure Canada. We are hoping that, for…
Read MoreVoyage around Scotland means sailing through history
By Ken McGoogan Special to the Globe and Mail So this was Calum Mor’s House, the oldest dwelling on the Scottish island of Hirta. According to legend, young Calum had built it in a single day to prove his worth: He had been passed over for the annual fowling expedition to Borera, a smaller island…
Read MoreTime travel . . . around Scotland and through Canada’s History
“Last June, during a voyage around Scotland,” the piece begins, “a history-buff friend told me about attending a talk by an academic historian who had written a book featuring a section on the 1758 siege of the Fortress of Louisbourg. My friend noted, with some dismay, that the professional seemed to take pride in the…
Read MoreExpedition to Mount McGoogan
A couple of years back, Our Hero led a two-person expedition in an attempt to climb Mount McGoogan (Cruach Mhic Gougain) in Kintyre, Scotland. On that occasion, he failed — a story he tells in the epilogue to How the Scots Invented Canada. Late next month, after voyaging around Scotland with Adventure Canada, Ken will…
Read MoreThe Wicked Need No Rest . . .
OK, here we go. On May 4, Our Hero addresses the Canadian Celtic Arts Association in downtown Toronto. It’s a public event co-sponsored by Celtic Studies, St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto, and Ken will talk about his book How the Scots Invented Canada. Details: please click here. On May 25, Ken will read from…
Read MoreManitoba, Canada, and the North 2011
You have to love the way the Manitoba Historical Society is bringing me in for the 46th annual Sir John A. Macdonald Dinner. They know how to treat an author! And check out the new Adventure Canada brochure. I’ve been traveling with these folks, experts all, for a few years now, and I swear they…
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