The coast with the most ...

THERE’S something special about landing on an island, whether you arrive by causeway or by bridge, by air, by ferry or other boat, by swimming, or swing by an island via a cable-car — and you’ve all those choices on offer for Ireland’s hundreds of islands.

Islands can make explorers of us all, appealing to our inner-child, to the naturalist, the bird-watching twitchers, to walkers, and to the recluse, with monastic outposts for the truly ascetic. A few islands appeal to partying hedonists too. The range scattered around the coastline embraces all callers, except Dursey cows.

Last week must have been uncomfortable for Cork County Council — on Thursday, it facilitated a Bantry gathering to promote economic initiatives on west Cork’s seven inhabited islands. That was the same week it hit headlines for banning cows on its upgraded Dursey Island cable car.

The only such transport in this country, it’s a novelty that’s a necessity for locals (though there’s only six human inhabitants) as well a rite of passage for tourists, walkers, sheep and cows, aiming to get close to the Bull Rock. Livestock making the swinging passage over choppy Dursey Sound are a tourist treat, even if it means the cable-car’s floors need regular sluicing out.

Islands, and their traditions, could be a tourism trump card and marketing image, even if we insular non-islanders pretty much ignore them most of the year. Out of the hundreds of off-shore islands, there’s something (history, folklore, fauna, flora, the freshest of air and the magic of insularity) for everyone, and if international tourists are prepared to come to the ‘island’ of Ireland, then surely they can be tempted to dip a toe into a little biteen more of a water-crossing journey, or two.

Some of our most dramatic scenery, and most abundant wildlife, from birds to whales and dolphins, are on or around the offshore islands: think the Aran Islands, the Skelligs, the Blaskets, Achill, Gairinish, Clare and Tory. Only 3,000 people now live on Ireland’s offshore islands and Inis Mor alone accounts for 800 of those. And, now, add west Cork’s islands (population circa 600) as a grouping to the roll-call of shore-fired attractions.

A group initiative to brand and strengthen links between seven inhabited west Cork islands is underway. Biggest population is on Bere Island, off Castletownbere, with numbers gone up to about 220, up from 187 in the last census. Next largest are Cape Clear and Sherkin Islands, with over 100 each, then comes Whiddy and Heir Islands, followed by a handful apiece on Long Island and Dursey.

Back in May, the seven promoted an Island Open Week, with discounted ‘islander’ rates on access ferries, putting on music and putting best feet forward with walks (there’s two days of walks on Bere alone). It seems to have paid off, as visitor numbers to the islands rose nicely during summer 2011, says John Walsh, of Bere Island Projects Group. Also fairly new on the scene is a Ten Island Tour, running in Roaringwater Bay, mixing visits to inhabited and desolate, abandoned islands in a day-trip cluster.

To help create a group or brand awareness, a west Cork islands brochure was printed this year, with 30,000 distributed to hotels and other tourist destinations, and now if a visitor goes on one island ferry, they can get a discounted ferry rate on visits to other islands.

A good move might be a group card to tick off visits, a bit like doing the stations of the cross or a treasure hunt, with challenges to visit all seven in a season, or in a sequence.

Though it sounds unwieldy, a Cork islands’ inter-agency group is working well since it was set up in 2009, across a range of fronts, looking at issues like access, health care, food promotion and festivals, education, sustainable energy, plus a group website. Thankfully, it seems aware of the need to maintain individual island identities, while coming under one practical, business-like promotions banner.

Other links will be tying up the military histories of Spike Island in Cork harbour with that of Bere Island, which was, in the early 1900s, one of the most fortified defences in the world with a forceful, sizeable British presence and battery.

The worldwide web is a friend to islands, physical ones and cyber ones, facilitating remote working as an option for islanders, and drawing them closer as options and destinations for visitors. Just Google ‘islands,’ and you’ll get 665m results.

Here, there are several bodies and federations charged with promoting/sustaining island life: see www.oileain.ie, while the similar-sounding website of a Dublin lawyer, adventurer and writer, David Walsh (www.oileain.org), knowledgeably charts his visits by kayak to 528 islands so far, and counting. Fáilte Ireland already has a National Islands brochure and web links (see www.irelandsislands.com). What it now needs to do is paper Dublin Airport with images and exhortations to go on to remoter islands for a different Ireland to the capital. And, we need to do a bit more island-hopping ourselves, too.