Home of Peig Sayers on Blasket Island 'used as a toilet by day trippers'
Peig Sayers' autobiography, which was published in 1936 and was Leaving Certificate Irish curriculum reading until 1995, detailed her life on the island.
One of two homes Peig Sayers lived in on the Great Blasket Island off the Kerry coast is among a number of ruins on the island being used as a toilet, according to caretakers who lived there.
Brock Montgomery and Claire de Haas say they routinely saw tourists “peeing or pooping” in the ruins of the famous Irish story-telling seanchaí’s first home.
They also saw them urinating and defecating in nearby ruins on the island, which was inhabited until 1953 when the 22 remaining residents were evacuated.
Mostly run by the Office of Public Works (OPW), the island is one of 15 of the Wild Atlantic Way’s Signature Discovery Points, which Discover Ireland describes as “incredible places to experience”.
But the island, which has neither electricity nor water mains, doesn’t have public toilets.
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As a result, tourists use ruins — which include the first home Peig lived in when she arrived on the island that the OPW has owned since 2009 — as toilets instead.
The couple, who left the island on Tuesday after starting work there as holiday home caretakers in April, also say tourists are endangering the lives of seals in the island’s famous seal colony.
Netherlands-born Ms de Haas said: “We witnessed people regularly using the ruins as toilets.
“But we don’t blame people because they have nowhere else to go.
“We are, however, more worried about what day trippers are doing to seals.
“We witnessed one man throw a seal cub into the water, then take it out and hold it up for a selfie taken by his wife.
“That seal cub later died. It was one of two to die that we know of.” The couple were so concerned about what they say has been going on on the island that they recently wrote to the OPW to draw their attention to the issues.
“There are no toilets, and there should be, and there are also no signs warning visitors about the dangers of being too close to the seals,” Mr Montgomery said.
“We have heard there are plans to build a pier on the island but, to be honest, we think they would be better off first installing better facilities for tourists."
Peig Sayers, who died in 1958, lived in two homes during the near-50 years she spent on the island.
One, where she lived with husband Pádraig Ó Gaoithín and his family, is now a ruin, and the other — which she lived in after her husband died until she left the island with her son in 1942 — is a privately owned holiday rental cottage.
Her autobiography, which was published in 1936 and was Leaving Certificate Irish curriculum reading until 1995, detailed her life and the hardships she endured on the island.
Máire Ní Dhálaigh, of the OPW-Failte Ireland-Department of Heritage’s €2.9m Blasket Centre on the mainland across from the island, last year described Peig as “the Netflix of the time”.
Tourism at the island has rocketed in recent years, with up to 1,000 people per week being ferried to the islands at high season in the summer months by different operators.
Following calls for toilets by local councillors in November 2017, the OPW said it was planning to install them.
Nearly five years later, the OPW still says it is planning to install public toilets.
“This is just beyond ridiculous, and pretty disgusting,” Kerry County Council councillor Brendán Fitzgerald told the
“The OPW needs to stop talking about installing toilets on the island and just get on with it.
“Peig Sayers’ homes on the islands are important landmarks in our cultural and social landscape and the fact that one of them is being used as a toilet is, frankly, disgusting.
“It is absolutely outrageous that this is happening because the State won’t install toilets on an island it actually promotes.”
A spokesperson for the Office of Public Works (OPW) said: “Provision of public toilets is an ongoing challenge given the unique nature of the island.
“At present, toilet facilities are provided on some ferry boats landing visitors to the island.
“The OPW is preparing to seek quotes from suitably qualified professionals to assess potential locations on the island for toilet facilities.
“Once a viable solution is identified and approved, the OPW is intent that funding will be secured for their installation.”
On the issue of the safety of seals, the OPW said: “The vast majority of people who visit the island (do) not cause any damage to wildlife.
“The vast majority are respectful of the need to protect wildlife.
“However, in response to recent incidents, the OPW is working on the installation of appropriate signage ahead of the 2023 visitor season, to include signs related to the protection of the seals and birdlife.
“In addition, the OPW will co-ordinate with ferry operators to ensure all visitors receive information on the island.”
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