Islands of Ireland: Poets inspired by Adam’s Island and Eve’s Island in West Cork

Dan MacCarthy looks at the history of Adam’s Island and Eve’s Island in Co Cork

Adam's Island, Glandore Harbour, Co Cork. Picture: Dan MacCarthy

At almost 30m high, Adam’s Island at the mouth of Glandore Harbour in West Cork is not the most elevated island, by a long stretch, to appear in this column. However, for anyone standing on the island, or sailing past, the cliffs look formidable enough. By comparison, Eve’s Island further in, is very small and its only worthiness really is to accompany the larger island in the biblical nomenclature.

For over 100 years Glandore was the playground of the Protestant Ascendancy where the huge mansions hosted lavish parties. There was a very Victorian ethos to the village which was reflected in the ornate language describing the loveliness of the place. The irresistible attractions of the area have moved people to record their feelings in poetry and must have been the subject of many an easel too over the years. In 1905 a correspondent, Richard G Aldridge, recorded his impression of the area in a piece reprinted in the Carlow Sentinel:

“Where broad Atlantic billows wildly roam 

Eve stands with Adam at the outward gate:

They for a glad re-entrance seem to wait - 

Two hoary isles be-sprent with gales and foam.” 

Though written in a Keatsian style the poem written almost 100 years after his death is richly evocative, if a little mawkish.

And another 100 years or so later, ‘A Limousine in Carrigillihy’ by Co Kilkenny poet Tom French captures the twin islands in a more earthy, realistic fashion:

“For twenty summers in his hearse 

parked on Mary O'Driscoll's grass 

that gives onto treacherous rocks named 

'The Treacherous Rocks', 

a pair of islands going by 'Adam' and 'Eve'

where the cattle are herded by the sea, 

that you can see from Mary's south facing settee, 

Charlie Shearer slept the sleep of the dead.” 

Adam’s Island, appropriately, is the larger of the two. It comprises just over an acre of what is effectively a high reef with an extensive sward on top. Eve by comparison is minute. Adam is convulsed by high seas in stormy weather and was the scene of a tragic incident in 2012 when the trawler Tit Bonhomme sank with the loss of five lives.

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For many years Adam’s Island was the focal point of the annual summer regattas held in the village. In 1854 the Cork Examiner enthused “space will not permit us to dwell on the many advantages which Glandore presents to the seeker of health and pleasure”.

In that year, boats set their course for Adam’s Island, circled it twice and chased to the next point. Imp, piloted by HH O’Bryen, was the winner of one such race around the island. A bizarre tangent to the main event involved “the highly amusing diversion” called the Pig and the Pole in which “a respectable individual of the porcine species afforded high gratification while ‘saving his bacon’ from his biped pursuers who chased the animal through the waters.” One man’s meat.

And in the 1896 regatta The Southern Star reported that rowers at Glandore took to their boats often in “a magnificent display of muscle and endurance”. On that occasion St Patrick’s Brass Band from Bandon played at the event and delighted the audience with renditions of Mendelssohn and other lively airs. The race to Adam’s Island again circled it twice and also took in the committee boat, the flag boat opposite the coastguard station. J Hegarty in Ocean Queen was followed home by Otago under Michael Burns and Peep O’Day piloted by J Donovan. Hegarty took home the princely sum of £4 for his efforts. Other races for the crowd’s entertainment were the lug race, the four-oared race and the six-oared race.

Last word to the loquacious Richard G Aldridge of the Carlow Sentinel:

“Thy very isles Adam and Eve are called.

O beauteous plain 

Of fair sea-blue sails and gauzy rain - 

The snow white rain that alternates with smiles 

Of the warm sun! O beauteous Glandore 

My memory holds thee now, and evermore.” 

• How to get there: Inquire at pier in Union Hall. Or view from a whale-watching trip with baltimoreseasafari.ie or corkwhalewatch.com 
• Other: Southern Star 22/08/1896; Midnightstown, Tom French, Gallery Press, 2014