May 29th 2013 - The Blasket Islands When Mike Carney launched his memoir 'From the Great Blasket to America' in Dunquin (Dingle Peninsula) last Friday May 24th , in the book he describes life on the island . There are many bereavements described in the book, including, poignantly, that of Carney’s mother, in a Dingle hospital. The Blaskets didn’t have a radio link then, so the Ó Ceárna family learned of her passing via a “signal fire” lit by relatives on the mainland. The author was not allowed attend the funeral, it being the custom then to keep children away from such events. He was 13. But an even more traumatic death, probably, was that of his younger brother Seán in January 1947. Which, tragic as it was in its own right, probably also marked the beginning of the end for the whole island. Amid the usual atrocious weather, with sea-crossings impossible and the battery-operated phone-line down, the 22-year-old Seán Ó Ceárna died painfully from meningitis, without doctor or priest. The only consolation would be a Christian burial, and for a while that too was in doubt. The island didn’t even have a coffin, and three young men risked their lives rowing to Dunquin in a vain attempt to bring one back. But it took the Valentia lifeboat, finally, to get a coffin to the island and collect the body. Three days had passed by then and decomposition was already beginning. So the author recalls his arrival with the boat in short, clipped sentences: “Everybody was crying. We put Seán in the coffin and nailed the lid shut. There was no wake; there was no time. The lifeboat was waiting

May 28th 2013 -The Blasket Islands Dingle Peninsula - 'a little history' It was abandoned 60 years ago after life became impossible for the handful of islanders left there and was neglected for many years. Now in State (government) ownership, for the most part, restoration work is taking place on the old village and other areas. Neglected for years because of legal wrangling over ownership, its importance as a nature reserve has recently begun to be appreciated.

The abandoned Blasket Islands in the Dingle Peninsula.. A lot of of the Islanders emigrated to Springfield Massachusetts - United States of America