Inishkea Islands
Encyclopedia
The Inishkea Islands (Gaelic: Inis Gé) are situated off the coast of the Mullet peninsula
in the Barony of Erris
. There are two main islands - Inishkea North and Inishkea South. The islands lie between Inishglora
to their north and Duvillaun
to their south, off The Mullet
's west coast and offer some protection to the mainland coast from the power of the eastern Atlantic Ocean
. The underlying rock of the Inishkea Island is that of gneiss
and schist
, the same as that on the Mullet Peninsula. The islands are relatively low lying and are covered in machair. Fine white sand is found everywhere, often blown into drifts by the strong winds especially along the beach beside the harbour where it fills the houses of the abandoned village
. The sea surrounding the islands is crystal clear. The inhabitants of both Inishkea North and Inishkea South left the islands in the 1930s after a tragic incident outlined below. Katherine Tynan wrote the following poem "To Inishkea" about the islands.
s and many sheep more interested in filling their bellies and enjoying the sun, than greeting visitors.
The earliest evidence of settlement on the island goes back at least 5,000 years and the islands have numerous archaeological sites from the Neolithic
and several Early Christian monastic sites. Early Christian sites dating from the sixth to the tenth centuries are found on most of the Erris
islands including Duvillaun and Inishglora.
A well known archaeologist, Francoise Henri visited these offshore islands in the 1930s and again in the 1950s. On Inishkea North (which is less visited than the south island) are the ruins of St. Colmcille's Church, the Bailey Mór, Bailey Beag and Bailey Dóite, small circular areas which contained beehive huts, used by monks in the Early Christian period. On the south island is a tall cross inscribed slab and to its west, the foundations of a small church. Inishkea must have been an important centre in the Early Christian period.
In 1927, the men from the islands were night fishing in the clear waters which surround the islands and a sudden violent storm blew up which caught them unawares. Some of the currachs managed to reach home but several failed to get back and one was reputed to have been taken all the way in and thrown up on the mainland with its crew unharmed. In the morning, it was discovered that several currachs and ten young fishermen had been lost. The island community was devastated and a few years later the community was rehoused on the Mullet Peninsula. The few who had miraculous escapes often related the tale of that fateful night. The last survivor, Pat Reilly, died aged 101 in 2008. The islands had a number of owners including the Barretts, who were a Norman family, the McCormacks who were given the island by King James I
and finally the O’Donnells of Newport
who took control of them in the 18th century. It is believed by many historians that the islands were abandoned in the Middle Ages before being re-inhabited in the 17th century.
station was established on Rusheen a small island, a short distance away from the south Iniskea island. Environmental rules and regulations in Norway
at the time meant that a lot of the whaling stations there had to be closed down and moved to other countries, like Ireland
, where the regulations were not as strict. The industry was short-lived as it lasted only ten years, but it employed a number of local people in difficult times. The presence of the station caused tension between north and south islands, because it is said that all the jobs went to the south islanders and the north islanders were left with just the foul smell from the station.
The whale industry on the Inishkeas did not begin and end at the beginning of the 20th century. Sperm whales were a common sight off the coast during the Middle Ages
and the most important product at the time to come from the sperm whale was its vomit. The vomit was hugely valuable because when it was washed ashore it had a sweet scent and was sold as perfume and medicine. It was traded in the 17th century from the coast of Connacht through Galway to Spain and onto the spice markets of Cairo
and Baghdad
where he said it was worth a ‘small fortune’.
In 1946, French archaeologist Francoise Henry
excavated evidence of a 7th century AD dye workshop on Inishkea North where the monks in an early Christian Monastery were producing it from the shells of the dog whelk
The dye fetched high prices at the time it was in high demand.
One letter in the Book of Kells
would take 500 shells to get enough colour to decorate it. Purple was very important because in early Irish laws
only the royalty could wear purple. The tradition came from the Roman tradition, who took it from the Greeks, who borrowed that tradition from the Phoenicians.
s can be seen on the island wherever there was enough soil to sow potatoes, even on the outer reaches near the cliff edge. While the lack of shelter would have made conditions too harsh for potatoes to flourish, the threat of starvation meant that every option had to be tried. However, unlike other areas of the west coast, the famine did not affect the Inishkeas as badly as the mainland. While the population on the mainland fell dramatically during the famine years, it was the opposite on the Inishkea islands because it would appear that potato blight was confined to the mainland. The prevailing winds would have kept the blight off the islands to a degree. The islanders also had the tradition of fishing.
It is alleged that the [island inhabitants] were always vigorously and actively engaged in piracy from the island. They were attacking and robbing boats passing west of them. “This was the whole island and [the operation] was highly organised, robbing the boats, taking the cargo and distributing it across the island. Wrecking was common along the west coast so the authorities had to deploy Royal Naval ships to stamp it out and there were islanders shot and killed as they attacked the passing vessels. The deliberate wrecking was an alternative enterprise because in the areas along the west coast there was no regulation. However, when coastguards were posted to coastal sites in the latter part of the 19th century, they were despised and hated and they were a disaster, economically, for these islands because they stamped out wrecking and smuggling.
visited the islands and learned the tale of a local artefact named the Godstone or Naomhóg. This, a modestly sized stone object had been an item of veneration, credited by the inhabitants of the islands with the powers of calming weather, speeding growth of potatoes, and quelling fire. The stone had allegedly been cast into the sea sometime in the 19th century upon the urging of one Fr. O'Reilly. White set out to find out what else he could learn.
His discoveries - which include pirates, the theft of the stone from North I. to South Inishkea by islanders jealous of its potato-growing properties, a thrice (or once) annual re-clothing ceremony and the niche in the wall of a south Inishkea hut where the Naomhóg had formerly resided - is contained in White's book The Godstone and the Blackymor, which was based upon his contemporary journal.
Over 300 pups are born annually on the islands, compared to just 150-180 in the mid-1990s. However, when pups are born they can’t go into the sea for the first ten days and there is a high mortality rare with only 50 per cent of pups expected to survive the first year.
While the seals are a protected species, there have been instances of them being culled by fishermen in the past because they bite at fish caught in nets. In the early 1980s over 120 seals and pups were killed on the beaches of the islands but the numbers gradually recovered over the last number of years.
The islands are also home to a number of bird species- the geese of the island's name are barnacle geese
. In addition, the islands have wheatear
s, rock pipits and fulmars. Lapwing
breed on the island and peregrine falcons hunt for prey. There is no evidence of rabbits or other mammals.
The islands have no trees and is composed almost entirely of machair with outcrops of rock. They are crisscrossed by a number of stone walls that provide some shelter for nesting birds.
The Mullet
The Mullet Peninsula, also known as the Mullet, is a peninsula in the barony of Erris in County Mayo, Ireland. It consists of a large promontory connected to the mainland at Belmullet , a town of about 2,000 inhabitants, by a narrow isthmus. There are several small towns on the Mullet peninsula...
in the Barony of Erris
Erris
Erris is a barony in northwestern County Mayo in Ireland consisting of over , much of which is mountainous blanket bog. It has extensive sea coasts along its west and north boundaries. The main towns are Belmullet and Bangor Erris. The name Erris derives from the Irish 'Iar Ros' meaning 'western...
. There are two main islands - Inishkea North and Inishkea South. The islands lie between Inishglora
Inishglora
Inishglora is an island off the coast of the Mullet Peninsula in Erris, North Mayo. It has some small neighbouring islands, known as Inishkeeragh. As with its neighbouring Inishkea Islands, Inishglora's geological composition is that of gneiss and schist, similar to the rest of Erris. The island...
to their north and Duvillaun
Duvillaun
Duvillaun is the name of a cluster of islands lying south to the Inishkea Islands and Inishglora in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of North Mayo. The main island is known as Duvillaun Mór...
to their south, off The Mullet
The Mullet
The Mullet Peninsula, also known as the Mullet, is a peninsula in the barony of Erris in County Mayo, Ireland. It consists of a large promontory connected to the mainland at Belmullet , a town of about 2,000 inhabitants, by a narrow isthmus. There are several small towns on the Mullet peninsula...
's west coast and offer some protection to the mainland coast from the power of the eastern Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
. The underlying rock of the Inishkea Island is that of gneiss
Gneiss
Gneiss is a common and widely distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from pre-existing formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks.-Etymology:...
and schist
Schist
The schists constitute a group of medium-grade metamorphic rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, chlorite, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others. Quartz often occurs in drawn-out grains to such an extent that a particular form called quartz schist is...
, the same as that on the Mullet Peninsula. The islands are relatively low lying and are covered in machair. Fine white sand is found everywhere, often blown into drifts by the strong winds especially along the beach beside the harbour where it fills the houses of the abandoned village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
. The sea surrounding the islands is crystal clear. The inhabitants of both Inishkea North and Inishkea South left the islands in the 1930s after a tragic incident outlined below. Katherine Tynan wrote the following poem "To Inishkea" about the islands.
- I'll rise and go to Inishkea
- Where many a one will weep with me–
- The bravest boy that sailed the sea
- From Blacksod Bay to Killery.
- I’ll dress my boat in sails of black,
- The widow’s cloak I shall not lack,
- I’ll set my face and ne’er turn back
- Upon the way to Inishkea.
- In Arran Island, cold as stone,
- I wring my hands and weep my lone
- Where never my true love’s name was known:
- It were not so in Inishkea.
- The friends that knew him there will come
- And kiss my cheek so cold and numb.
- O comfort is not troublesome
- To kindly friends in Inishkea!
- ‘Tis there the children call your name,
- The old men sigh, and sigh the same;
- ‘Tis all your praise, and none your blame,
- Your love will hear in Inishkea.
- But you were dear to beast and bird,
- The dogs once followed at your word,
- Your feet once pressed the sand and sward–
- My heart is sore for Inishkea.
- I’ll rise and go to Inishkea
- O’er many a mile of tossing sea
- That hides your darling face from me.
- I’ll live and die in Iniskea!
History
The islands are little known outside of the local area but are well known by Gaelic speaking fishermen who use the island harbour regularly. There are regular trips from Falmore on the mainland to the islands when weather permits and after a trip taking about half an hour, the boat ties up at the pier right beside the pure white sandy beach lined with little ruined cottages, some of them with slate and galvanised roofs and in habitable condition (these being used by surveyors etc... doing work on the islands). However, the sands of time have – quite literally – taken their toll on most of the buildings with the floors covered in several feet of white sand blown in from the beach. It is not long before visitors realise the island is inhabited by many curious and friendly donkeyDonkey
The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...
s and many sheep more interested in filling their bellies and enjoying the sun, than greeting visitors.
The earliest evidence of settlement on the island goes back at least 5,000 years and the islands have numerous archaeological sites from the Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
and several Early Christian monastic sites. Early Christian sites dating from the sixth to the tenth centuries are found on most of the Erris
Erris
Erris is a barony in northwestern County Mayo in Ireland consisting of over , much of which is mountainous blanket bog. It has extensive sea coasts along its west and north boundaries. The main towns are Belmullet and Bangor Erris. The name Erris derives from the Irish 'Iar Ros' meaning 'western...
islands including Duvillaun and Inishglora.
A well known archaeologist, Francoise Henri visited these offshore islands in the 1930s and again in the 1950s. On Inishkea North (which is less visited than the south island) are the ruins of St. Colmcille's Church, the Bailey Mór, Bailey Beag and Bailey Dóite, small circular areas which contained beehive huts, used by monks in the Early Christian period. On the south island is a tall cross inscribed slab and to its west, the foundations of a small church. Inishkea must have been an important centre in the Early Christian period.
In 1927, the men from the islands were night fishing in the clear waters which surround the islands and a sudden violent storm blew up which caught them unawares. Some of the currachs managed to reach home but several failed to get back and one was reputed to have been taken all the way in and thrown up on the mainland with its crew unharmed. In the morning, it was discovered that several currachs and ten young fishermen had been lost. The island community was devastated and a few years later the community was rehoused on the Mullet Peninsula. The few who had miraculous escapes often related the tale of that fateful night. The last survivor, Pat Reilly, died aged 101 in 2008. The islands had a number of owners including the Barretts, who were a Norman family, the McCormacks who were given the island by King James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
and finally the O’Donnells of Newport
Newport, County Mayo
Newport, historically known as Ballyveaghan , is a small picturesque town in the Barony of Burrishoole County Mayo, Ireland with a population of 590 in 2006. It is located on the west coast of Ireland, along the shore of Clew Bay, north of Westport. The N59 road passes through the town. The...
who took control of them in the 18th century. It is believed by many historians that the islands were abandoned in the Middle Ages before being re-inhabited in the 17th century.
Whaling and shellfish
IN 1908, a Norwegian whalingWhaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
station was established on Rusheen a small island, a short distance away from the south Iniskea island. Environmental rules and regulations in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
at the time meant that a lot of the whaling stations there had to be closed down and moved to other countries, like Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, where the regulations were not as strict. The industry was short-lived as it lasted only ten years, but it employed a number of local people in difficult times. The presence of the station caused tension between north and south islands, because it is said that all the jobs went to the south islanders and the north islanders were left with just the foul smell from the station.
The whale industry on the Inishkeas did not begin and end at the beginning of the 20th century. Sperm whales were a common sight off the coast during the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
and the most important product at the time to come from the sperm whale was its vomit. The vomit was hugely valuable because when it was washed ashore it had a sweet scent and was sold as perfume and medicine. It was traded in the 17th century from the coast of Connacht through Galway to Spain and onto the spice markets of Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
and Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
where he said it was worth a ‘small fortune’.
In 1946, French archaeologist Francoise Henry
Françoise Henry
Françoise Henry was a scholar of early Irish art. She studied at the École du Louvre with Henri Hubert. She worked for University College Dublin from 1934 to 1974.-External links:*http://www.ucd.ie/archives/html/collections/henry-francoise.htm...
excavated evidence of a 7th century AD dye workshop on Inishkea North where the monks in an early Christian Monastery were producing it from the shells of the dog whelk
Dog Whelk
The dog whelk, dogwhelk, or Atlantic dogwinkle, scientific name Nucella lapillus, is a species of predatory sea snail, a carnivorous marine gastropod mollusc in the family Muricidae, the rock snails....
The dye fetched high prices at the time it was in high demand.
One letter in the Book of Kells
Book of Kells
The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament together with various prefatory texts and tables. It was created by Celtic monks ca. 800 or slightly earlier...
would take 500 shells to get enough colour to decorate it. Purple was very important because in early Irish laws
Brehon Laws
Early Irish law refers to the statutes that governed everyday life and politics in Early Medieval Ireland. They were partially eclipsed by the Norman invasion of 1169, but underwent a resurgence in the 13th century, and survived into Early Modern Ireland in parallel with English law over the...
only the royalty could wear purple. The tradition came from the Roman tradition, who took it from the Greeks, who borrowed that tradition from the Phoenicians.
Famine and piracy
During the Irish Famine (1845/47), the people on the Inishkea islands were not immune. Like most places in the west of Ireland, the pattern of lazy bedLazy bed
Lazy bed is a method of arable cultivation. Rather like cord rig cultivation, parallel banks of ridge and furrow are dug by spade although lazy beds have banks that are bigger, up to 2.5m in width, with narrow drainage channels between them....
s can be seen on the island wherever there was enough soil to sow potatoes, even on the outer reaches near the cliff edge. While the lack of shelter would have made conditions too harsh for potatoes to flourish, the threat of starvation meant that every option had to be tried. However, unlike other areas of the west coast, the famine did not affect the Inishkeas as badly as the mainland. While the population on the mainland fell dramatically during the famine years, it was the opposite on the Inishkea islands because it would appear that potato blight was confined to the mainland. The prevailing winds would have kept the blight off the islands to a degree. The islanders also had the tradition of fishing.
It is alleged that the [island inhabitants] were always vigorously and actively engaged in piracy from the island. They were attacking and robbing boats passing west of them. “This was the whole island and [the operation] was highly organised, robbing the boats, taking the cargo and distributing it across the island. Wrecking was common along the west coast so the authorities had to deploy Royal Naval ships to stamp it out and there were islanders shot and killed as they attacked the passing vessels. The deliberate wrecking was an alternative enterprise because in the areas along the west coast there was no regulation. However, when coastguards were posted to coastal sites in the latter part of the 19th century, they were despised and hated and they were a disaster, economically, for these islands because they stamped out wrecking and smuggling.
The Godstone
In 1940 English author T. H. WhiteT. H. White
Terence Hanbury White was an English author best known for his sequence of Arthurian novels, The Once and Future King, first published together in 1958.-Biography:...
visited the islands and learned the tale of a local artefact named the Godstone or Naomhóg. This, a modestly sized stone object had been an item of veneration, credited by the inhabitants of the islands with the powers of calming weather, speeding growth of potatoes, and quelling fire. The stone had allegedly been cast into the sea sometime in the 19th century upon the urging of one Fr. O'Reilly. White set out to find out what else he could learn.
His discoveries - which include pirates, the theft of the stone from North I. to South Inishkea by islanders jealous of its potato-growing properties, a thrice (or once) annual re-clothing ceremony and the niche in the wall of a south Inishkea hut where the Naomhóg had formerly resided - is contained in White's book The Godstone and the Blackymor, which was based upon his contemporary journal.
Flora and fauna
THE Inishkea islands are home to large numbers of Atlantic Grey seals and the coves and beaches across the islands are the largest breeding colonies for grey seals in Ireland.Over 300 pups are born annually on the islands, compared to just 150-180 in the mid-1990s. However, when pups are born they can’t go into the sea for the first ten days and there is a high mortality rare with only 50 per cent of pups expected to survive the first year.
While the seals are a protected species, there have been instances of them being culled by fishermen in the past because they bite at fish caught in nets. In the early 1980s over 120 seals and pups were killed on the beaches of the islands but the numbers gradually recovered over the last number of years.
The islands are also home to a number of bird species- the geese of the island's name are barnacle geese
Barnacle Goose
The Barnacle Goose belongs to the genus Branta of black geese, which contains species with largely black plumage, distinguishing them from the grey Anser species...
. In addition, the islands have wheatear
Wheatear
The wheatears are passerine birds of the genus Oenanthe. They were formerly considered to be members of the thrush family Turdidae, but are now more commonly placed in the flycatcher family Muscicapidae...
s, rock pipits and fulmars. Lapwing
Lapwing
Vanellinae are any of various crested plovers, family Charadriidae, noted for its slow, irregular wingbeat in flight and a shrill, wailing cry. Its length is 10-16 inches. They are a subfamily of medium-sized wading birds which also includes the plovers and dotterels. The Vanellinae are...
breed on the island and peregrine falcons hunt for prey. There is no evidence of rabbits or other mammals.
The islands have no trees and is composed almost entirely of machair with outcrops of rock. They are crisscrossed by a number of stone walls that provide some shelter for nesting birds.
External links
- Inishkea Islands, Irish Islands.
- http://www.mayonews.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4707&Itemid=38