The
most Westerly lands in Europe are a unique group of islands off the
coast
of Kerry known as “The Blaskets”.
The name “Blasket” is a mystery and nobody knows how or why the group of Islands came to be known as “The Blaskets”. One suggestion is that it originates from the Norse word 'brasker' which means 'a dangerous place'. |
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Although
first thought to be inhabited over a thousand years ago by a monastic
settlement the earliest written record of the Blasket
Islands was recently discovered in an archive in Samancas, Spain. The
document records people living on the Great Blasket Island as far back
as 1597. The ship’s captain who left the document refers to
the islands as 'Yslas de Blasques' and incredibly he also
states that the inhabitants spoke fluent Spanish. |
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The
population of the island varied over the hundreds of years but in 1840
the population was thought to be approximately 150 people.
Sadly after the great famine of 1846-1850 that number had declined
drastically. Like most villages in Ireland after the famine, the population
began to grow and by 1916 the population in the Great Blasket Island
had reached its peak of 176 men, women, and children. Tragically less
than forty years on, the Great Blasket Island had been abandoned by
her people. The emigration race had begun. |
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