The islands of Ireland: Forgotten archipelago in Roaringwater Bay

Dan MacCarthy discusses Carthy’s Islands in Roaringwater Bay

One of the great questions that can be asked about an island is can it, or could it have, supported human life.

Inhospitableness is the common theme running through Judith Schalansky’s eccentric Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands. Carthy’s Islands, where Long Island meets Roaringwater Bay in West Cork merit an inclusion in this superb study of remote islands. And the remote in this collection really means remote, not such as an island in Ireland described as remote when it lies just a few kilometres off the coast. Here, remote means Fangataufa, 4,410km from New Zealand or the prison colony of Norfolk Island which housed many Irish people, 1,390km from Australia’s rocky shore. There are no Irish islands in Schalansky’s book but if any deserve inclusion it is the elusive Carthy’s Islands.