THERE USED TO be a marsh in the Gaeltacht village of An Spidéal where the birds would land. You could walk along the wall opposite Trá na mBan and see them. This piece of wild land extended into acres.

When I heard that a hotel was planned for this spot, I was not surprised. The land has panoramic views of Galway Bay and County Clare. The developer spent five years getting planning permission and eventually succeeded.

In the summer of 2022, it was the talk of the village: 81 rooms, dozens employed, summer jobs for teenagers, a new place to eat. It was just what the village needed.

Pier and ocean in Galway Bay, Spiddal, Galway, Ireland Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Soon, the machinery arrived and began to bulldoze the shrubs and trees, creating huge piles of rock and earth. The marsh began to disappear. The weeks went by, and then it stopped. The diggers and trucks left, but the rubble and earth sculptures remained. The marsh was more or less gone. Why had the building stopped? No one knew, and no one asked. Grass began to grow on the mounds of earth.

A year went by. I drove by the site on my way into Galway and glanced over for signs of recommencement, but there were none, so I stopped looking.

Maybe we have just got used to such mysteries. A short........

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