CS Lewis and the Return of the British Open

"The longest way round is the shortest way home."

The Open Championship (or British Open) is one of the four major tournaments in golf and is one of the largest sporting events in the world. It is being held this week at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland - the first time this event has been back in Ireland for nearly 70 years. So what does this have to do with CS Lewis?

Lewis was born and raised in and around Belfast, Ireland. He and his family would often take family vacations to Portrush and the surrounding area, just over an hour away. There were beaches, an amusement park, natural attractions, and yes, even a castle. Just the place for a little boy with a fertile imagination.

One of the main natural attractions in the area is the Giants Causeway - a series of hexagonal rock formations which are the result of ancient volcanic activity. Of course, the Irish have a different story. They say that the causeway was formed by a scuffle between two giants who once lived there. Perhaps this was the place Lewis was thinking of when he wrote about the giant’s territory of Harfang in the Silver Chair.

Dunluce Castle is not far away - sitting high atop a cliff overlooking the Irish Sea. Although now it is just a skeleton of its former self, it is still a majestic sight on the rugged coast. It must have made quite an impression on little Jack when he saw it for the first time as a child. Many believe that this castle was the inspiration for his royal city of Cair Paravel in the Chronicles of Narnia books.

In Narnia, the castle also happens to be right on the edge of the sea. After ruling there during the Golden Age of Narnia, the four Pevensie children return when called back by Prince Caspian. Upon their return the castle is overgrown and in ruins, a mere semblance of what it once had been, but still standing and still evocative.

The Open Championship returns to Ireland this week for the first time since 1951. What else happened that year? Prince Caspian was published as the second book of the Chronicles of Narnia series, which tells about the ruins of Cair Paravel, inspired by Dunluce Castle.

We often think of CS Lewis as an Englishman since he lived and taught in Cambridge and Oxford. That is of course true in part. But he always remained an Irishman at heart, returning to his home country nearly every summer for a holiday by the sea.

These brief times of joy for Lewis would anticipate and finally culminate in that final journey home to Aslan's country, which for him was only the beginning of the real story. All his life in this world and all his adventures had only been the cover and  title page. Now at last he was beginning chapter one of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before.