"The sharp wind blowing around An Rinn from Helvick is bracing and
iodine-filled. And the strangeness of the name, the Cunnigar, still
lingers. My mother used to say it had something to do with hounds, and a
Portlaw cyclist resting in The Railway Bar, Cappoquin, said that it had
something to do with rabbits. Goats and donkeys grazed there on the
little vegetation. Today the Cunnigar - best seen across Dungarvan Bay
from "the lookout" of the old Stokes Baths - is a refuge for sea-birds.
Rabbits were introduced into the area at the time of the Desmond
Geraldines, hence the name, An Coineagéar"
Thomas McCarthy - original text
here
The first beach I ever came to in Waterford was The Cunnigar. I asked in the Sue Ryder charity shop for the closest beach and was directed here. It was misty and raining and felt other-wordly. I found a rusty enamel bowl which I still have, on the shelf in the spare room. The second time I came it was sunny and there were black cows grazing the strip of grass alongside the beach.
Today it was sunny and overcast, warm and still with oyster farmers being ferried by tractor to the oyster beds and evidence of their industry washed in all round me.
