BIO: Most magical is the internationally-renowned island garden of Ilnacullin described and photographed in the Spring 1998 issue of "The World of Hibernia" -- An excerpt: "On a day of azure skies and sparkling sunshine after a rainfall, I drove 11 miles from Bantry around the bay to the charming village of Glengarriff. Then boarding the "Harbour Queen" for the 15-minute trip to Ilnacullin ("island of holly,") and also known as Garinish, we sailed past sleepy seals sunbathing on rocks to a small island buffered by a belt of Monterey and Scots pines. On this barren outcropping, Belfast-born Annan BRYCE, a Member of Parliament for Iverness, Scotland, envisioned a garden and a mansion on the 37 acres he purchased from the British War Office in 1910. Rocks were blasted on this inhospitable island, soil hauled from the mainland, and specimens arrived from all corners of the globe to create a garden of pure enchantment in the midst of the sea. Bryce began building the garden before the mansion. His cash-flow dried up when his oil drilling in Russia came to a halt with the revolution there in 1917; as a result, the mansion never materialized. The head gardener, Finbar O'SULLIVAN, was found on the terrace of the Casita, a marble-columned ornamental teahouse. Frequent Sunday visits to Ilnacullin as a child and to his father's small nursery in Glengarriff provided incentives for an abiding interest in gardens. After studying at the Kildalton College of Horticulture, O'Sullivan taught polio victims at a technical school in Cork and worked at Muckross House, in Killarney, County Kerry, before coming to Ilnacullin in 1980. At the time of the article, O'Sullivan lived with his wife and three small children in Durrus, where he was also involved with the West Cork Garden Trail. "There is no shortage of moisture here, 100 inches of rainfall annually." said O'Sullivan. "I love to see people enjoying the gardens." They watched as contented children played on the sunken lawn behind the Casita. "On spring mornings, the scent of rhododendron fragrantissimum can reach you while you are still on the boat." Bryce's favorite spot was said to be Happy Valley, where black Japanese pines sheltered a magnificent weeping dacrydium franklinii from Tasmania, and oriental spruces and redfood flourishing amind an abundance of lacecap hydrangeas of startling blue. A path to the left enters the Jungle, a deep woodland notable for tender rhondondrons, giant tree ferns, most notably the Dicksonia Antarctica, and a rare Schima khasiana from China. In 1953, Roland BRYCE, Annan's son, bequeathed this treasure to the Irish nation. Their walk ended at the Walled Garden, where high stone walls and wrought-iron gates barely contained the exuberance of flowers, the most beautiful the authoress had ever seen. Mauve and blue delphiniums had grown 18 feet tall, the speckled trumpets of Cardiocrinum giganteum soar even higher. Climbing roses, yellow daisies, cotoneaster, silver-leafed Pittosporum tinged with pink, clematis, and a rainbow of asters created a crescendo of color, a potpourri of perfumes. The cry of sea birds, the drowsy drone of bees, the murmurings of trees and water lent further enchantment.