Several Irish islands are connected to the mainland by an isthmus as if the shore can’t bear to let them go — an umbilical cord that ties them to the shore till time erodes the link and renders it a ‘true’ island.

Piracy, prostitution and the pub trade were rife in the South-West in the 16th century when the area from Roaring Water Bay in West Cork and as far as Dingle in Co Kerry was a haven for swashbuckling pirates and bustling local trade.