Luxury break on Inishturkbeg – the island’s all yours for €96k

“I WILL arise and go now, and go to... Inishturkbeg?”

Poet WB Yeats might have romanticised Sligo’s The Lake Isle of Innisfree, but businessman Nadim Sadek is about to eulogise a rival Co Mayo island Inishturkbeg.

The half-Egyptian, half-Irish marketing specialist is to place the Clew Bay isle in the exalted international company of sun-kissed islands and jet-set retreats, and sell luxury island-branded goods on the back of its image.

A consumer psychologist who sold a marketing company for millions and who bought an Irish island with some of the proceeds, Mr Sadek is now about to brand a whole range of luxury goods – think whiskies, jewellery, toiletries, and luxury clothing – with the name, and relaxed ethos, of his private retreat.

Back in 2002, singer Ronan Keating made overtures to buy the 63-acre Inishturkbeg island near Westport.

But, in the end it was bought for over €1 million by “Chief Islander” Mr Sadek, and his Westport-born wife Sandra O’Malley, as a holiday spot for them and their four children.

They’ve now spent around €10m building physical infrastructure on the island and have five truly high-end holiday houses for sharing, with paying guests.

Amenities include a €2m grass-roofed and solar heated swimming pool, all weather playing field, and simple walks in wellingtons – branded wellingtons.

The island is likely to be booked by the famous, for special family get-togethers, corporate bonding, as well as by the rich and the reclusive.

First guest bookings include a major rock star, and then an international supermodel, but no names disclosed, naturally.

Prices range from €1,950 for a couple for a weekend, to €96,000 for the full island, with its boat services and tours, with full catering for 40 people.

Time to break open the off-shore account, perhaps? Five years of physical building work on the island – which employed up 40 locals – has now come to an end.

The Mayo entity is up as a scenic site on the web, at www.inishturkbeg.com, and now building the business brand in its wake takes over.

Inishturkbeg itself now has architecture to match its topography, including an achingly cool Swedish pavilion.

All that’s missing, perhaps, is a small cabin, of clay and wattles made, and, oh maybe nine bean-rows, a hive for the honeybee, and surely peace will come dropping slow.