The Islands of Ireland: Heather Island has an international literary pedigree

Heather Island (centre) Renvyle, Co Galway. Inset: Former residence of the writer Oliver St John Gogarty on the island. Pictures: Dan MacCarthy

THE first words of James Joyce's masterpiece, Ulysses:  “Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.” 

It is among the most famous opening lines of any novel, perhaps challenged by Charles Dickens's, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”, from  A Tale of Two Cities, or "Call me Ishmael", from Hermann Melville's Moby Dick.  The line provides a weighty connection to this week’s island.