A Night Under Northern Lights

If you were out in Ireland last Friday night and looked towards the sky, you would have seen the most spectacular light show.

Myself? I was at home getting ready for bed around midnight when I checked my phone. To my surprise it was flooded with messages from friends telling me about the aurora in Ireland. I look out the window to confirm and behold, I could see a faint green shimmer in the sky.

Seeing the lights clearly in the city is challenging, so Laura and I geared up, grabbed our bikes, and rode to Three Rock Mountain, about 14km from where we live. We reached the summit around 1am, but the lights were barely noticeable. After waiting for about an hour, the show began.

The picture above, taken with my mirrorless camera, accurately represents what we saw up to that point—just hints of lilac in the sky.

On the way up, I messaged some friends to join us, and some of them actually did — legends! Rafa & Rafa arrived around 2:30am to see the show, but as soon as they did, the lights started to fade. It also started to get a bit nippy, but none of us wanted to head home just yet, so we decided to stay a little while longer.

Around 3:45am, it exploded.

The brightness… it was incredible! And it was now moving! Any direction we looked, there it was: The Bifröst Bridge, the way to Asgard! Oh Odin, grant us entry! (Pardon me, I am but a simple nerd, I love Norse mythology and got a bit carried away, moving on…).

We were so happy, jumping and shouting atop the mountain. I’ll never forget that night.

Here are some additional photos taken with my phone, you can see how phone cameras exaggerate the aurora’s appearance — not entirely realistic, but still stunning!

What an incredible night! We headed home as the sun rose in the horizon. Laura and I got home around 6am, Rafa(ela) went straight into work, without any sleep. The following night, we camped at Ballinastoe, hoping to catch another glimpse, but the aurora didn’t make an appearance in Ireland that evening.

Thank you, Laura, for always being ready for any spur-of-the-moment adventures, some of them really pay off, don’t they? And thanks Rafas, for joining us in a cold night to chat, laugh, and look at the sky.

It was the best night ever…
Laughter raining down like April showers…
Oh we talked for hours…