Dingle Peninsula, Ireland: Great Blasket Island
More info about travel to the Dingle Peninsula: The story of Great Blasket Island's tiny community — just a ghost town today — gives an insight to the soul of Ireland. Taking a boat ride there is a highlight for anyone interested in traditional Irish culture.
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Blasket Islands - Ireland
Stunning drone footage of The Great Blasket Island off the South West coast of the Dingle Peninsula..
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Ireland #16 Great Blasket Island (Dingle Peninsula)
The Last Islandman returns to his birthplace, the Great Blasket
The abandoned Great Blasket Island off the west coast of Ireland holds a special place in the heart of 92-year-old Dr Mike Carney who was born there. The Telegraph goes with him as he visits his birthplace for the last time.
I don't know if I will be able to make it, says Mike Carney, looking out across a wild stretch of water to the place where he was born 92 years ago. I would like to put my feet down there one more time, but I wonder, is it possible?
Frankly, it seems crazy to try. The Great Blasket is famous throughout the world as a place where a remarkable community once lived, but it is remote, empty and inaccessible for most of the year.
We are in the far west of Ireland and the weather is turning bad, making the ground treacherous underfoot. Dr Carney walks with a shuffle and wears a brace for his back.
He is standing on the headland, looking out at the Blasket Sound. Under those waves there are many wrecks.
To get to the island, the old man will have to negotiate a wet quayside, a rubber dinghy, a sharp climb up into a converted fishing boat and an hour's journey by sea, buffeted by the Atlantic waves. Then he will face the dinghy again and the derelict island slipway, slick with seaweed, leading to a steep rock path as slippery as ice. Yet he says: I have the determination within me to do this.
He has come a long way already to reach this point; more than three thousand miles from his retirement home in Massachusetts, then down the coast of Ireland from the airport to the far tip of the Dingle Peninsula, a finger of land that points back west.
I can't get the island out of my mind, says Dr Carney, with the strong accent of a man who grew up speaking only Gaelic and who has never let the language go.
I dream about the island at night. I dream about the way it was when we were young.
The Great Blasket island was abandoned 60 years ago, as the result of a tragedy that had broken the hearts of the Carney family and their fellow islanders. The evacuation took place on 17 November 1953. Nobody has lived there permanently since. The houses are ruins. So what is calling Mike Carney now? Why is he risking his life to get back?
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Great Blasket Island, Co. Kerry, Ireland (Dingle Peninsula)
From pre-history through present day, Great Blasket is steeped in Irish culture. Isolated, mysterious yet filled with a rich history.
#ireland #history #travel #writers
Visiting The Great Blasket Island
A safety guide for visitors
Diving with the seals of the Blasket Islands, Dingle-Peninsula, Ireland
A dive with the curios seals at Seal Cove.
Blasket Islands
An overall explanation of the Blaskets and what you can expect when visiting...
This is not a zoo, sometimes you see them and sometimes you don't...
Great Blasket Island #1, Dingle Peninsula, Kerry, Ireland
Info and Photos at Walkopedia page:
Fine walking on this magnificent and historic island, Europe’s westernmost point.
The Great Blasket Island Documentary | Walking Around Ireland - Day 28
Why the Great Blasket Island was Evacuated
I took this photo yesterday morning on my way back down to the waiting boat. It’s the National School on the island from the same spot as the photograph I am holding.
Before I continue walking around Ireland, I wanted to explain something...
The Great Blasket Island was evacuated in 1954 after being inhabited for centuries by a small but close-knit Irish speaking population who followed a traditional way of life involving farming, fishing, weaving.
Although the population was close to 200 people at one time, this number diminished rapidly in the early 1900’s. It was due to decline and depopulation that the remaining twenty two islanders were forced to evacuate the island.
But why?
While some moved to cities on the mainland, in most instances, the young had emigrated to America.
You see, it cost £6 to catch the ferry from Cobh to New York and the youth were terribly excited by the prospect of jobs, and a much more glamorous or less demanding way of life.
Interestingly, it was easier for islanders to travel to New York than Dublin and the Americas seemed closer at that time.
Most often, the eldest female would go to work in Dingle or nearby cities and save up this £6 to pay for the boat. Once settled in America, they would work and send home the passage money to their siblings who could then follow in their footsteps.
In the end, the youth had left the Great Blasket and the remaining islanders were unable to sustain the harsh requirements of living in such a remote environment. After an emergency message was sent to the Taoiseach, Eamon de Valera gave the order to evacuate the remaining islanders.
It was a common theme in Ireland, emigration, and awfully sad for the Great Blasket. Unlike today, this youth would never have the opportunity to come home and they would also live on with the knowledge that their “home” and that incredibly primitive way of life, no longer existed.
#GreatBlasketIsland #GreatBlasket #Ireland #Irish #Irishemigration #Irishdaily #Vanishingireland #oldireland #Ancientireland #Irishhistory #Irishculture
Thank you so much to my two sponsors @BDifferent and @ElkRecruitment and @Hiiker App :)
Also, Huge thanks to the kind souls who have “bought me a coffee” (link below) as a tip for making these videos - you are the BEST :)
About the Walk - I am hiking from Dublin to the Great Blasket Islands in Co. Kerry. I will be sleeping in a tent and it will take approx 30 days to complete the 600km+ journey. Most of this trail is known as “Coast to Coast” but I have always had a fascination and urge to pitch my tent on the Great Blasket Island which is why I will head north upon reaching Killarney.
And in case you might be asking yourself, I am walking around Ireland because I really enjoy walking.
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Great Blasket Island Ireland
Ireland, Irish music, Donkeys, Beautiful scenery and THE CRAIC... sure what else would you want?
Blasket Island Boat Tours - Slea Head - Dingle
Blasket Island Boats tours depart from Dunquin Pier on the Slea Head peninsula each day and take you on a tour around the coast of the Blasket Islands where you may see Seals, Dolphins, Basking sharks and a variety of birds.
Dunquin pier is about 12Km from DIngle town.
Phone: 087 7435442 for more info.
Great Blasket Island #3, Dingle Peninsula, Kerry, Ireland
Info and Photos at Walkopedia page:
Fine walking on this magnificent and historic island, Europe’s westernmost point.
Drone Trip to Great Blasket Island and back from Dunmore Head, Kerry
28th August 2018
Flight by DJI Mavic Pro Drone to Great Blasket Island in Co. Kerry, Ireland.
Trip starts from Dunmore Head on Slea Head and returns flying over Beiginis Island.
Notable points in the video...
1. Most of the houses of the former islanders are in ruins - the last inhabitants were evacuated on 17th November 1953
2. The cottage once lived in by the former islander and storyteller/author Peig Sayers is flown over at 2:37 minutes - its the leftmost of three white cottages which have been been renovated. If you look carefully during the flyover you can spot a black hen running up the driveway to the cottage!
3. You can see Inishtooskert island out to sea from 3:10 to 3:18 minutes
4. There is a big gathering of seals in the sea and on the beach at 3:38 minutes
5. Beiginis Island is approached and flown over from 3:54 minutes. Note the sheep grazing on this small island and also the single ruined dwelling.
This flight was an automated pre-designed mission using the Litchi Control App and Google Maps. The sections of the video with the drone going out over the sea and back have been quickened up in editing so as not to bore the viewer! The parts over both islands are at the normal actual drone speed.
The full real time mission duration was 13 minutes. The distance from the take-off point to landfall on the Great Blasket Island was 2.30 Km (1.43 miles). I was as nervous as hell flying this mission so far out to sea, but it was well within the battery life of the drone and I always had telemetry and video feed from the drone.
WATCH: Ever wonder what Kerry's Great Blasket Island looks like from the air?
Incredible drone footage shows Peig Sayer's island in its full glory.
Great Blasket Island #2, Dingle Peninsula, Kerry, Ireland
Info and Photos at Walkopedia page:
Fine walking on this magnificent and historic island, Europe’s westernmost point.
Great Blasket Island (Paradise) Sunday April 19th 2015
Filmed and edited by Trevor Read Produced with CyberLink PowerDirector 13
Return to the Great Blasket Island
93 year old Mike Ó Ceárna left the Great Blasket in 1937. This week he travelled from the U.S. to West Kerry, for the official launch of the islander's autobiography.
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Great Blasket Island - Dingle, Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland
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Great Blasket Island Dingle
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Travel blogs from Great Blasket Island:
- ... So at 1230 we met at e marina and got on a boat headed for he Great Blasket Island ...
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Photos from:
- Dunquin, Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland
Photos in this video:
- Us on the Great Blasket Island by Marcusgarfunkel from a blog titled The Great Blasket Island
- Great Blasket Island by Marcusgarfunkel from a blog titled The Great Blasket Island
BLASKET ISLAND IRELAND, 1958 IRISH RADIO AMATEURS' OUTING
A silent 8mm movie filmed by Maurice Lyons, back around 1958 or 1959, when he lived in Tralee, and accompanied the 'Irish Radio Amateurs' on a group outing to Blasket Island, Ireland. Nothing more is known about this film, but shared on You Tube, as novelty viewing for people associated with Blasket Island, Kerry, or even the Irish Radio Amateurs' association.
It seems that the association is still very much up and running:
The Elsie Mabel, the boat that picked the group up from the island, features in other films from the fifties of the area...Dingle in the fifties: James C. Houlihan's home movies: Blessing of the Boats(1951 and two other years) - Fife and Drum band - the blessing on the pier - boats at the harbours mouth and virtually the entire flotilla sailing in the harbour. Boats included are: ELSIE MABEL(Pats Waistcoat Brosnan)...
More about the Blaskets...
If you can offer any background, or identify any of the people in the film, please leave comments.