Blasket Islands

The Blasket Islands as seen from Dunmore Head

The Blasket Islands (Irish: Na Blascaodaí) are a group of uninhabited islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Ireland, forming part of County Kerry.

The name of the islands is of uncertain origin: it might be from the Old Norse word brasker meaning "a dangerous place".

The six principal islands of the Blaskets are:

• Great Blasket Island (An Bhlascaod Mór)
• Beginish (Beiginis)
• Inishnabro (Inis na Bró)
• Inishvickillane (Inis Mhic Uileáin)
• Inishtooskert (Inis Tuaisceart)
• Tearaght Island (An Tiaracht)

History

The islands were inhabited until 1953, and their population was wholly Irish-speaking. However on 17 November 1953, the inhabitants were all evacuated by the government to the mainland due to the declining population and harsh nature of life on the island. Some of the descendants of islanders crossed the Atlantic to form a community in Springfield, Massachusetts, and some former residents still live on the Dingle Peninsula, within sight of their former home.

The islanders were the subject of much anthropological and linguistic study around the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries particularly from writers and linguists such as Robin Flower, George Derwent Thomson and Kenneth H. Jackson. Thanks to their encouragement and that of others, a number of books were written by islanders that record much of the islands' traditions and way of life. These include An tOileánach (The Islandman) by Tomás Ó Criomhthain, Peig by Peig Sayers and Fiche Blian ag Fás (Twenty Years A-Growing) by Muiris Ó Súilleabháin.

The Blasket Islands have been called 'Next Parish America', based on the idea that the next parish west of the islands would be in America, as indeed it is: the next geographically would be in Newfoundland, Canada.

The Blasket Islands against the afternoon sun

Transport

The Blasket boat landing on the mainland near Dunquin

A ferry service that calls only to the Great Blasket sails from Dunquin on the mainland. This ferry service is mainly for day-trippers. Passengers are transferred to a rigid-inflatable boat once the ferry gets close to the island, as there are no adequate landing facilities for a larger vessel.

Visitors can also camp on the island overnight.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Blasket Islands)

• Location map: 52°5’21"N, 10°32’49"W
• blasketisland.com

References

• The Blascaod Centre in Dún Chaoin
• The last of the Blasket evacuees: ‘We weren’t great mixers on the mainland’
• Evacuation marks end of an era as last families leave the Blaskets