injunjane

"...Emain Ablach (also Emne; Middle Irish Emhain Abhlach or Eamhna; meaning "Emhain of the Apples") is a mythical island paradise in Irish mythology. It is often regarded as the realm of the sea god Manannán Mac Lir and identified with either the Isle of Man or, less plausibly, the Isle of Arran."

I have never been to the Isle of Man, but I've visited Northern Ireland (a magic place with the greenest green grass and the wavefront separating North Sea from the Atlantic Ocean).

However, my personal Emain Ablach, surprisingly, have always been England - mostly London and its surroundings. I've spent 5 months studying and working in Imperial College London after my first doctoral study, and these were the best 5 months in my life ever. From that time I've got a metaphore 'The Inner Ireland" - it's analogous to The Inner Mongolia of Victor Pelevin (a place of power for Buddhists) in its European sense.

That is, my Inner Ireland is always inside, but when outside - it's London. In particular, London Hammersmith, where I was attending lectures on Irish Traditional Music by Brendan Malkyer, and London West Kensington tube, when I was playing that music.

This photo is from the day of the most strong snowfall recorded in UK in preceding 11 years, shot at St. Catherine's Docks in London.
The backstory from it is as follows: one day in February I was looking outside from my patio, thinking that it's the very end of winter but still not a single snowfall, how sad. I have complained about this disturbing fact in my LiveJournal...next morning I tried to open the door and understood that there is so much snow outside that the door didn't move(!)

The whole day I was roaming around London taking photos. The Tube stopped working and all ground transport including taxi stopped too. They simply didn't have the equipment to fight the snow which was thicker than 10cm, because normally it doesn't happen in England :)