Islands of Ireland: Inishvickillane
Sitting high on the cliffs of eastern Inishvickillane the view eastwards to the other Blaskets is simply extraordinary, writes .
It is one of the six main Blasket Islands which lie just off the Dingle Peninsula in Co Kerry. There are two other very small islands: Oileán Bui, Oileán na nÓg, and three islets: , , and .
The most recognisable of the archipelago is Inishtuaisceart or to use its popular sobriquet, the Sleeping Man. Then there is the double pyramid of Inishtearaght, the serpentine Great Blasket, the double-humped Inishnabro and finally, the edifice of Inishvickillane whose cliffs are topped with a nearly flat plateau where six or seven football pitches could be fitted.
Now, bar some summer visitors, they are largely places of solitude. Each distinctive. Collectively, a group of islands as lovely as any in the world. An occasional ship passes on the horizon while under its rugged cliffs fishing boats and some pleasure craft weave between the islands leaving a vivid trail of froth.
Around the year 700 a monastery was founded there by saint Mocheallog including a small limestone church, oratory, graveyard, leacht (grave), clochán (beehive hut), and an ogham stone which was brought for safekeeping to Trinity College, Dublin. One of the crosses has a swastika — an emblem of peace that appears on other crosses along the western seaboard and which derives from the ancient east. There are also the ruins of a promontory fort.
The late Co Kildare writer Mícheál Ó Dubhshláine identified at least 33 spellings of the island including: Inis Mhic Aoibhleáin; Inis ‘ic Ileáin; Inis na Cillain, Hynchemacyvelan, and Oileán Dálaigh a reference to the family who lived there until the 1950s. He says the more accepted spelling is Inis Mhic Uibhleáin. However, to generations of Blasket islanders it was known simply as the Inis.
The area once teemed with activity. Inishvickillane had a population of 12, the Great Blasket had 160 inhabitants and there were even a few people who braved Inishnabro. The seas were alive with the fishermen’s currachs.
Inishvickillane, though was not the most populated westerly island. That honour went to Inishtearaght, 3km away where lighthousekeepers lived from 1881.
There was a very important connection between Inisvickillane had the Great Blasket through the person of Cáit Ní Dhálaigh who was born on Inisvickillane in 1873, one of 10 children. Blasket native Tomás Ó Criomhthain, later to develop a famous writing career (The Islandman), said of Cáit and her sisters “they were as easy on the eye as any four women you might find on the island”. However, his relationship with Cáit was deemed unsuitable by his older sister and Cáit emigrated to the US. Tomás instead married Máire Ní Chatháin. He later wrote “I was turning my back on the girl I liked best in the whole blessed world right then.” The story is related in Gerald Hayes’s superb new account of Ó Criomhthain’s life (see below).
The late Taoiseach Charlie Haughey bought the island from the descendants of the original Ó Dálaighs in 1974 and built a holiday house there. It is an elegant, single-storey building which looks out on the
majestic Skelligs. Haughey hosted famous visitors there including former French president Francis Mitterand. The Haughey family still visit the house in summer.
Inisvickillane is famous for its red deer population which roam freely. Haughey introduced them in 1980 when a stag and doe were brought from Killarney National Park. More deer were gradually introduced until the population grew so large that an annual cull became necessary.
Inisvickillane’s Christian church is one of the most westerly in Europe. Iceland, more westerly, has many Lutheran and a few Catholic churches. However, Mocheallog’s church was once the outpost of Irish Christianity. Now roofless, but with its walls as steadfast as the day they were built, it is a monument to a great human achievement. Embraced by silence.
Inishvickillane is privately owned. No access.
Inisvickillane: A Unique Portrait of the Blasket Island, Mícheál Ó Dubhshláine, Brandon; The Blasket Islandman: The Life and Legacy of Tomás Ó Criomhthain, Gerald Hayes, The Collins Press
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
