Blasket Islands

Blasket Islands
Native name: <span class="nickname" ">Na Blascaodaí

Blasket Islands as seen from Dunmore Head
Geography
Location Atlantic Ocean
Total islands 6
Major islands
Administration
County Kerry
Demographics
Population 0 (as of 2011)

The Blasket Islands (Na Blascaodaí in Irish - etymology uncertain: it may come from the Norse word "brasker", meaning "a dangerous place") are a group of islands off the west coast of Ireland, forming part of County Kerry.

Geography

The six principal islands of the Blaskets are:

History

The boat landing on the mainland near Dunquin, from where boats leave for the islands

They were inhabited until 1953 by a completely Irish-speaking population, and today are part of the Gaeltacht. The inhabitants were forcefully evacuated by the government to the mainland on 17 November 1953.[1] Many of the descendants currently live in Springfield, Massachusetts,[2] and some former residents still live on the Dingle Peninsula, within sight of their former home.

The islanders were the subject of much anthropological and linguistic study around the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries particularly from writers and linguists such as Robin Flower, George Derwent Thomson and Kenneth H. Jackson. Thanks to their encouragement and that of others, a number of books were written by islanders that record much of the islands' traditions and way of life. These include An tOileánach (The Islandman) by Tomás Ó Criomhthain, Peig by Peig Sayers and Fiche Blian ag Fás (Twenty Years A-Growing) by Muiris Ó Súilleabháin.

The Blasket Islands have been called Next Parish America, since the next parish west of the islands would theoretically be the United States. This term is popular in the United States and recalled in the book The Blasket Islands - Next Parish America by Joan and Ray Stagles.[1]

Panorama of the Blasket Islands against the afternoon sun

References

  1. 1 2 Stagles, Joan and Ray, The Blasket Islands: Next Parish America. Dublin: O'Brien Press, 1980 (new edn. 1998).
  2. ↑ Flynn, Anne-Gerard (4 September 2015). "Irish president's tribute read at Blasket islander Michael Carney's Springfield funeral". Springfield Republican (Springfield, MA). Retrieved 4 September 2015.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Blasket Islands.

Coordinates: 52°05′21″N 10°32′49″W / 52.08917°N 10.54694°W / 52.08917; -10.54694

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, April 29, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.