Cloyne
Cluain Uamha

George Berkeley thought matter didn't exist. His chair is in Cloyne Cathedral.

Cloyne is a very small village in East Cork, ten miles east of Midleton, nowhere near anything louder. The kind of place where the church is the loudest argument.

The story here isn't the stone—it's the philosopher. George Berkeley, who insisted that to be is to be perceived, was Bishop of Cloyne from 1734 until he died. He lived here. He wrote here. He thought here. And then he went to Oxford and died and they buried him there instead of giving him the honour of this place. But his chair stayed. The wooden chair he sat in as a bishop—*percipi*, perceived, still here in the cathedral.

Walk around and you'll find the medieval cathedral where Berkeley's chair sits like a joke about matter. Outside stands one of the best-preserved round towers in Ireland—full height, no debate about what it was. St Colman founded an abbey here in the sixth century. The Normans built the cathedral. The tower has been watching since before surnames were invented.

Cloyne is a hurling village—East Cork GAA country, serious to the point of quiet. There's a GAA club. There's the cathedral. There's a road. Don't expect much else.