Irish Examiner view: Are our islands the route to the future?

The Dursey Island Cable Car reopened yesterday having been closed for an upgrade in March 2022. Picture: Brian Lougheed

It was, no doubt, a matter of happy coincidence that West Cork’s Dursey Island cable car reopened in the same week as an upbeat government strategic report — the first for 27 years — into the future of the islands of Ireland.

The Republic’s only cable car, originally opened in 1969 when Jack Lynch was Taoiseach, was closed more than 12 months ago for a €1.6m upgrade with a promise that it would reopen in 2022. 

At its height, it carried more than 20,000 passengers a year and, famously, was regularly used to take livestock across the treacherous Dursey Sound. The carriage of animals was stopped in 2012.

Mayor of the County of Cork Danny Collins said at yesterday’s ribbon cutting that the service was “truly unique” and “holds immense historical and cultural significance for the people of Cork county”.

And not just the county of Cork, but further afield. When development plans were announced in November 2021 the Irish Examiner observed that the existing trip, seen through gaps in the floorboards over often-raging waters, contains “just enough of an old-fashioned frisson to set it apart from many similar journeys around the world”.

This symbolic moment at the Beara Peninsula coincides with a spirit of renewal in the role of offshore living with the launch of a new report, Our Living Islands by Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys and Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien. 

This contains 80 commitments spread over 10 years to improve services in housing, health, and education; delivering high-speed broadband; increasing tourism; supporting employment and remote working; and further developing outdoor amenities. Support is planned so that people can live and work in their own community.

A scheme to renovate vacant and derelict homes will be extended to boost housing supply with a maximum grant for island properties to be 20% higher for vacant buildings at €60,000 compared to €50,000 on the mainland. For derelict sites, the grant will be €84,000, compared to €70,000.

These commitments chime with the times and the emphasis on sustainability and community with the concept of the “15-minute city”. Or in this case, a village where a quarter of an hour in any direction will simply result in locals getting their toes wet.

Populations on the nation’s islands have been in decline since the 1840s and that has continued in recent years. But values are changing and the ability to work reliably from home coupled to quality of life is increasingly attractive in an unstable world. 

Movie makers have long lauded the road to the isles... featuring the Arans, the Blaskets, the inhospitable (unless you are a Jedi Knight) Skelligs and there are many which would be attractive with basic services and TLC. The solution may not be for everyone, but in a nation which is growing, it’s a good idea and worth pursuing.