Cuan M Clew Bay seen from the summit of Croagh Patrick or point to see a typical drumlin island which has had its end chewed off by the sea. None found yet. None found yet. Yes, it is a picture of a walrus. But a brick-red walrus with real ivory tusks and wrinkled skin, lolling on a rock near Old Head, within a stone's throw of grazing sheep, oblivious of holiday traffic and, praise be, young Mr Paul Cotter's camera, was almost surrealistically disturbing.
Walruses belong in the Arctic, with the polar bears.
The only ones l've ever seen close up were chivvied off an ice floe in East Greenland by a helicopter's brutal wind. This took place in Franz Josef Land which is in the Arctic about 1,300 miles further north than Ireland and much more the sort of place where you would find a walrus. Nansen and Johansen, two Norwegians who had been trying to reach the North Pole were on their way back home in August 1895. They ignored the obese monster. They had food enough, and merely wanted to advance.