The Islands of Ireland: A taste of the Saltees

Dan MacCarthy talks us through the Saltee Islands, named by Viking seafarers.

At the south-east corner of Ireland lie two islands that through their names alone say as much as anywhere else about our history. The Saltee Islands in Wexford were named by Viking seafarers — Salt ey, where ‘Salt’ is salt and ‘ey’ is the Norse word for island. The name later evolved to its current spelling. Though the Vikings were infamous for raiding many of our islands on the west coast such as Skellig Michael, there is evidence too of their presence elsewhere in the Irish Sea: Ireland’s Eye (originally ey) off Dublin; Anglesey in Wales — Ongli’s Island.

This pair of islands are lonesome, for apart from the nearby minute Keeragh Islands, they are the only sizeable islands between Dublin and Youghal. Unlike our fragmented western coastline, the eastern and south-eastern coasts are remarkably contiguous with just a handful of islands decorating the margins.