Islands of Ireland: The world is your Oyster

By Dan MacCarthy

Two figures steeped in the seafaring tradition stand guard at Rosses Point, Co Sligo.

The first is a depiction of a beseeching woman by Dublin sculptor Niall Bruton of a woman with her arms outstretched towards the sea pleading for the safe return of her loved ones.

The ‘Waiting on Shore’ monument to generations of seafarers has a poignant inscription: ‘Lost at sea, lost at sea/ Or in the evening tide/ We loved you, we miss you/ May god with you abide.’

The second figure is the Metal Man which resembles a giant toby jug of sorts. The Metal Man is one of only two in the country.

The other is at Tramore, Co Waterford. And dressed in a British sailor’s outfit it an oddity in republican Ireland but nonetheless a mature nod to our chequered history.

It is a personification of a shore guide and was erected in 1836 by Lloyd’s of London to avert disasters at sea and, of course, hefty insurance payouts.

In between the agonised woman and the stout Metal Man is the low-lying grassy island of Oyster Island which comprises about 50 acres.

There are several fine looking houses, unoccupied now sadly.

The island’s lighthouse was constructed in 1837 and over the years several men earned their living and raised their families in the employ of the lighthouse body.

Four years after construction of the lighthouse there were 28 people living on the island. There was a small school and a thriving community.

The island is just 180m from the shore at Rosses Point so supplies were never hard to get though the notorious currents sometimes made crossings difficult.

A short memoir by lighthousekeeper’s son Michael A Hawkins captures life on the island in the 1930s.

The Metal Man points to safe passage to Sligo Harbour for seafarers.

He wrote that each of four keepers served six weeks on Blackrock Lighthouse followed by two weeks on Oyster Island.

Their lives followed a structured if carefree pattern.

“My mother would rise at approximately 7.30am, call the children and clean out the grate on the coal-burning range. Then she would light the fire, fetch water, put the kettle on for tea, and make the porridge.

In the meantime we in turn filled two enamel basins with cold water from the tank and washed our hands and faces, then got dressed for school.”

Mr Hawkins describes the thrill of watching ships from South America carrying maize and corn tied up opposite the island to discharge some cargo before sailing into Sligo to complete unloading. The sight of a black man frightened the children.

“On one such occasion I saw my first black man ever. We were all too terrified to go back on board for a visit for many months,” he wrote.

However, they had their own boat too for fishing.

We had our own boat, so occasionally went fishing around the Metal Man. My brother and I rigged a sail for the boat; without a keel, however, we had some scary moments. Other days at low water we went in search of crabs and lobsters under the rocks. Some days we played golf with old clubs.

The lighthouse and the Metal Man are in a direct line facing northwest providing a safe navigational route for sailors from the Atlantic past Deadman’s Point and into the shallow waters of Sligo Harbour.

Another lighthouse lies 1km off shore, Black Rock, indicative of the dangerous reefs and currents thereabouts. To the south lies the much larger Coney Island which is accessible by foot at low tide.

Oyster Island is famous not just for its oysters but for its hares, and local poet, the late Dermot Healy, immortalised the animals in ‘The Hares of Oyster Island’

Praise be the hares on Oyster Island!

Put there by huntsmen. Loved by poets.

And gone at last beyond the reach of dogs.

They eat with the sheep and the guinea hens, And run short distances between bouts of contemplation.

May they have long lives, The hares that afford us a break From the language that would explain them

Oyster Island is now uninhabited.

How to get there: The island is privately owned. Enquiries of trips at Rosses Point pier.

Other: The Ballyconnell Colours, Dermot Healy, Gallery Books www.wildatlanticshanty.ie