Saturday – The Blasket Island Center

This morning’s walk was without camera, so no random pictures.

Today’s history lesson is about the Blasket Islands, just three miles off the Dingle Peninsula coast. For a more complete history, read the above link or this one here. The highest population of the Great Blasket (pictured above – not my photo), the largest island, was about 180. It was tough living out there. They raised sheep and lived off the sea. Only three miles away, the mainland was often unreachable for days at a time because of the rough seas. By the 1950’s the population was down to 30-ish. Only one child and no doctor. In 1953 the government declared that the island was to be evacuated and so it was. Oddly enough, many of the Blasket islanders, both from earlier days and at evacuation time, ended up in, of all places, West Springfield, Massachusetts. There are still close ties between the Dingle Peninsula and West Springfield. The Blaskets are also noted for the literature that emanated from there. More detail here. I have read several of the books.

Yes, we visited the deserted Blaskets on one of our visits to Dingle. Now there are two (or maybe three) structures on the island where you can spend the night in a B&B type environment. No heat. No electricity. No food – bring your own. There is, oddly enough, excellent cell phone reception.

The last boy on the island was Gerald Keane (Gearóid Ó Catháin). He wrote a book called the Loneliest Boy in the World. I’ve read it. And we met him and his wife about ten years ago in the Dingle Pub one quiet afternoon. He is still alive and lives in Cork now. When we met him, he was looking for a place to buy in Dunquin, the closest village to the Blaskets. He never bought anything.

So, anyway, today we visited the Blasket Islands Center outside of Dunquin (Dún Chaoin). We’ve been before, but it has been substantially upgraded and improved since about 2019. We had a pleasant visit, and we saw Hannah again as she was also visiting the Blasket Center. We watched numerous movies about the Blaskets and interviews conducted with many of the final residents. The stories are compelling. Most of them are now dead and buried, save for the Loneliest Boy and a couple of others. In general, islanders are buried on the mainland as there is no consecrated graveyard on the island. There is unconsecrated grave site that was used for unknown bodies that washed up on shore from time to time.

Oh, and we had a very pleasant lunch in the Coffee Shop.

It was raining when we left. We stopped at the store for some stuff, and I filled the car up with gas. (Gas is about $7.00/gallon when you convert the euros/liter price.) Dinner was at home – leftover lamb sausages with potato and carrots. Early to bed.