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Chalk and Cheese: Two Views of Ireland.

© Bernd Wechner

In 1990 Rosita Boland, hitch-hiked around the coast of Ireland. Some seven or eight years later Tony Hawks hitch-hiked around the coast of Ireland. Both had the most wonderful experiences, the source of memories they'll treasure a life long. They both wrote a book about the experience, but there the similarity ends.

Rosita went clockwise, Tony counter clockwise. She stuck faithfully to the coast, including Northern Ireland, he took shortcuts and skipped the Troubles. She was Irish, he English. She hitched in winter, he in spring. She took three months, he one. She stayed at hostels, he avoided them like plague. She was a she, he a he. She writes descriptively, historically, pensively, he comically, lively and entertainingly. She was alone, He brought his fridge ...

I read Hawks' recent book Round Ireland with a fridge just before I a recent trip to Ireland myself. It's a most eccentric, and entertaining read. In 1989 on his first visit to Ireland, he drove past a guy trying to hitch a ride in the company of his fridge! Only in Ireland could you expect to get a ride with your fridge in tow! He'd tell the story of the Fridge Man from time to time over the years that followed, and one pub night when no-one would believe it was possible, he made a drunken £100 bet that it was possible to hitch the circumference of Ireland with a fridge in one calendar month.

Well the bet itself wasn't any big deal, but Hawks is a comedian and it sparked a sense of comic adventure within him, so he flew to Dublin, spent £130 buying a fridge, and hit the road ... he was rightly rather worried it wouldn't work. He was cutting corners of course, bought a small bar fridge - the guy he saw in '89 had a full sized fridge - and caught a bus to the first country village north-west of Dublin, but all the same, it's easy to imagine his trepidation. There was a little pride involved after all. It wasn't just a personal gamble, he'd laid a bet. What if he couldn't get a ride? He'd lose the bet on the first day and a smidgen of pride with it.

Well, in the end his worry was, understandable, but somewhat misplaced. A friend of a friend, who'd organised a fridge and a B&B for the first night, suggested he let Gerry Ryan know about his bet. Gerry Ryan had a daytime talk show on national radio and was always interested in crazy ideas. The studio wasn't far from the B&B so Tony left a note about the plan and the phone number. Next morning Gerry called back ...

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