Poet and tenor sax player Barry Edgar Pilcher, once dubbed Ireland’s loneliest man after living alone on an island for 20 years, returned to Inishfree for the first time in five months on Tuesday and admitted he had almost forgotten what it was like to live in silence.

Ireland’s loneliest man is moving back to England this year after 20 years on the Donegal island of Inishfree.

Hugh O’Donnell may be the only presiding electoral officer to have music played to him during voting in this referendum.

Islanders off the north west coast of Ireland became the first people to vote on the Lisbon Treaty today, with the most remote said to be on the verge of rejecting it.