#11 Blasket Island

 

Blasket Island

          In the extreme southwest of Ireland we found the Blasket Centre in Dún Chaoin. It’s situated on the bleak tip of the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry.  The Centre (museum/visitor center) honors the people who lived on Great Blasket Island, three miles off the coast of the Dingle Peninsula. The last residents abandoned the island in 1956. The Centre overlooks the six Blasket islands, with Great Blasket Island being the largest.

          When we visited the center, the dark gray sky, fierce wind, and biting cold sleet made walking to and from the parking lot difficult. This is where we got the scenes of our characters walking into fierce headwinds.

          The Centre features displays and artifacts offering a heartwarming remembrance of those hardy Irish people who called the barren island home for many years. Because of their isolation, and the fact they were completely Irish-speaking, the islanders became the subject of much anthropological and linguistic studies.

          Those same strong people raised families there, but the older people were the last to be reluctantly evacuated, having to abandon their dreams of watching their grandchildren play and grow up on the island