Barry Edgar Pilcher returns to Inishfree for final packing

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.

Rain lashed Inishfree, off Donegal’s coast, as Barry, 70, and wife Eve carried their overnight cases and food in wheelbarrows 750m from the ferry landing point. It was the only way to reach the cottage, along grassy paths without a road.

As a seagull squawked, Barry, who now lives in Dagenham in London, said: “That’s what I have missed; the sound of the birds. All I hear now is traffic helicopters above my neighbourhood.”