A lifetime of Islands: July 2023

Great Blasket is the largest island in the Blasket archipelago. The Blaskets are located off the western tip of the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry. There are 7 islands in the group:

Great Blasket/Blascaod Mór,
Inishvickillane/Inis Mhic Uibhleáin
Inishnabro/Inis na Bró
Tearaght/Tiaracht
Inishtooskert/Inish Tuaisceart
Beiginis/Beginish
Oileán na n-Óg

Great Blasket is the closest island in the group to the mainland: it lies 2km west of Dunmore Head.

In around 1290 Great Blasket was leased by the Earl of Desmond to the Ferriter family. They held the island until 1653 when the rebel chieftain Pierce Ferriter was executed. The island was inhabited from possibly the end of the 16th century, but certainly by 1735. The islanders kept cows, sheep and chickens. They grew crops, including potatoes, oats, cabbage, turnips and later carrots in the fields around the village. The rest of the island is only suitable for rough grazing. The islanders also fished. They burnt peat, turf and heather for fuel. Peat and turf was stored around the island in stone shelters.

The population of Great Blasket grew c1800 when several families moved there from the mainland, due to shortage of land and evictions. In 1810 a track running a third of the way along the island was constructed, to enable the building of a watch tower on the top of the island. Protestant missionaries opened a school on the island in 1839. In 1841 the population was 153 but it had dropped to 97 by 1851, due to the effects of the Great Famine. Many of the islanders emigrated to the USA and a large proportion of these settled in the town of Springfield in Massachusetts.

In 1893 the Congested Districts Board made improvements on Great Blasket, including the construction of a breakwater and a new slipway. In about 1910 they built 5 new houses on the island. By 1901 the population had increased to 145 and in 1920 it peaked at 180.

A number of scholars, writers and linguists visited Great Blasket from the early years of the 20th century to the 1930s to learn the Irish language and study the folklore and culture of the island. These included Robin Flower, George Derwent Thomson, John Millington Synge, Carl Marstrander, Brian Ó Ceallaigh and Kenneth H. Jackson. Some of them recorded the islanders' stories and encouraged some of the islanders to write down their own stories.

Books in Irish by the following islanders were published:

Peig Sayers (1873-1958): Peig and An Old Woman's Reflections
Muiris Ó Súilleabháin (1904-1950): Twenty Years a-Growing
Tomás Ó Criomhthain (1855-1937): Island Cross-Talk and The Islandman
Seán Ó Criomhthain (1898-1975): A Day in Our Life
Máire Ní Ghuithín (1909-1988) : The Island that Was
Eibhlís Ní Shúilleabháin (1911-1971): Letters from the Great Blasket

In January 1947 24 year old Seáinín O'Cearna died of meningitis on Great Blasket because weeks of stormy weather and a broken radio telephone meant that no medical aid could be summoned for him. In April 1947 the residents of Great Blasket sent a telegram to the Taoiseach Eamon de Valera saying they had nothing to eat because they had been cut off from the mainland by weeks of storms. A boat carrying food supplies arrived on the island a few days later. In July 1947 Eamon de Valera visited Great Blasket and discussed evacuation plans with the islanders but no action was taken.

By 1953 the population of Great Blasket had decreased to 22. The Irish government evacuated the remaining islanders in November 1953. Most of them were resettled on the Dingle peninsula. The Ó Suilleabháin family were the last islanders to leave and they did so in 1954. Great Blasket hasn't had any permanent residents since then.

In 2009 the Office of Public Works bought most of Great Blasket, including most of the properties in the deserted village.

Passenger ferries run from Dún Chaoin/Dunquin Pier and Dingle. The sailing time from Dunquin to Great Blasket is 20 minutes. You have to get into a RIB at both ends of the journey before boarding the ferry. Guided tours of the village by OPW staff are usually available.

When I visited Great Blasket in mid-May 2023, violets, thrift, primroses, tormentil and lousewort were in flower around the village.

There is a Blasket Centre on the mainland at Dún Chaoin, which is run by the OPW. There is an admission charge of €5 for adults. It contains information, photos and videos about the way of life of the Blasket islanders and biographical information about the islanders who were published authors. It also has a restaurant and toilets.

Inis na Bró was inhabited until the mid 19th century. Sheep and cattle grazed there in the summer months and the Blasket islanders hunted seals in the caves on the north side of the island.

The Daly family had a home on Inis Mhic Uibhleáin until 1904. The remains of an early monastic site are still present on the island. In 1974 Irish government minister and later Taoiseach, Charles Haughey purchased the island and built a holiday home on it.

Cattle were grazed on Beiginis.

Tiaracht is the most westerly of the Blasket Islands. A lighthouse was built on it in 1870 and automated in 1988. The Blasket islanders hunted puffins for food and other sea birds for their feathers, which they used for their bedding.

Inis Tuaisceart was inhabited in early Christian times and the remain of Brendan's Oratory can still be seen. It was inhabited again for a short time in the 19th century. Potatoes were grown on the island and sheep were grazed.