Angel of the Last Chance © 2022, Gordon Murray

A number at the door, and an angel-aisling appears over this cottage on the Burren—from the Irish word, “Boíreann” meaning a "rocky place." It has been called a landscape where there is “not enough water to drown, nor earth to bury.” It measures 530 square kilometres within the circle made by the villages of Lisdoonvarna, Corofin, Gort and Kinvara.

Philosophers considered the number three deeply significant—the perfect number of harmony, wisdom and understanding. It was also the number of time—past, present, future; birth, life, death; beginning, middle, end.

"Aisling" is Irish for "apparition," or "dream." The Burren is a world apart, where fish swim in rocks with St. Elmo's Fire. The poet, Seamus Heany said it was a place, "that was as much of hope that the purest and saddest were prepared to allow for."