Kirby and the kittiwakes

WITH all the hype about Star Wars and Skellig Michael, there’s a danger some people might be deluded into thinking it is just a spectacular rock that has only recently been discovered in the Atlantic.

But it has a much deeper significance. It is hugely important as an internationally-known seabird colony, for instance, and was the location for one of the first monastic sites in Ireland, around 600AD.

Long before Hollywood heard of Skellig, the late Michael Kirby, a writer and fisherman from nearby Ballinskelligs, in south-west Kerry, had been singing its praises as a wonder of a nature and a place to be cherished for its wildness and remoteness.