Aer Arann chief plans escape from rat race

Date Published: 04-Jun-2009

AER Arann chief, Padraig Ó Céidigh is planning an unusual new venture – the establishment of a retreat centre in his native county where those strung out from the rat race or in need of some rest can get away from it all.

Speaking to The Connacht Tribune, Mr Ó Céidigh said he felt the years of the property boom and the wealth that came with it had robbed people of a sense of spirituality and he said that he wanted to do something to help replenish that.

“I believe we have lost something that is really fundamental to Irish people and that is a sense of spirituality. With ten years of the Celtic Tiger, we have gone into materialism and have lost a sense of
who we are and what we are about and a sense of any real relationship with people”

“I was in Haiti last year helping to build schools and in a place of 83% unemployment, they are the happiest people I have ever seen. They have nothing, but they are absolutely content and that was something I had not seen in a long time”.

As a result of this, Mr Ó Céidigh said he…