The Blasket Islands, A Mecca For Scholars Of The Irish Language, Poets And Writers

The Blasket Islands,the scene of several shipwrecks over the years. The largest being The Great Blasket-is 4 miles long, 1mile wide and almost 1000 ft high. Slea Head and The Dingle Peninsula are just 2 miles fromThe Blasket Islands.

The Blasket Islands formed a Mecca for Irish language scholars and for its folklore. Although nobody now lives there the traditional culture survives in the tales so carefully recorded in translations and books.

• "The Island Man" by Thomas O Crohan
• Peig Sayers “Pieg” Translated by Bryan MacMahon
• "Twenty Years A-growing" By Maurice O Sullivan

Life on the Blasket Islands appear to have been pretty near idyllic, and the people were supposed to be “the happiest in the world.”

Its community declined due to emigration of its youth and the local women, no longer willing to confine their marriage prospects on these tiny Blasket islands, was eventually abandoned in 1953. It is uninhabited today but can be visited by ferry to enjoy its natural beauty.

Access to these rocky islands is along a narrow road to the tiny harbour of Dunquin and then by a boat to the edge of the islands where you may have to scramble into a dingy to a boat slip at the foot of the cliffs. You must pick a good clear calm day.

I must admit when I took the trip I was glad to get back on solid land, the small boat I crossed in was a little rusty

The Islands were known as Ferriters Islands. The Ferrite family leased islands, they once had a castle there but nothing remains now as the stones were taken to the protestant soup school in 1840, the school closed after the ravages of the great famine in 1852.

The Blaskets were once a close-knit fishing/farming community; in the old days they caught fish off rocks even though the sea was teeming with fish (apparently nobody could swim). The houses had large kitchens-big enough to house the animals during bad weather or room to dance or accommodate a corpse!