Blasket Islands Post Office

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The [Blasket Island] Post Office opened in 1941. The Island Post Office was the vital contact with the outside world in the declining years of the Island. A radio telephone link was in operation in the Post Office from 1941 to 1953. This meant that the islanders could contact the Post Office on the mainland parish of Dunquin in times of emergencies and send telegrams.

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Is the island uninhabited now?

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Sadly, the Blasket Island community declined as a result of the persistent emigration of its young people, until eventually the Island was abandoned in 1953 when only 22 inhabitants remained. The Great Blasket Island remains uninhabited today, but visitors can travel by ferry over to this remote and wildly beautiful place and spend several hours or all day marvelling at its natural beauty and what remains of years of human endeavour.

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There was not much arable land, but they farmed what they could, mostly potatoes. Still, they didn't rely on the potato for sustenance, so they were not as severely affected by the potato blight as the rest of Ireland was. There were never horses on the island, but they did have donkeys -- male donkeys only. The land was too dangerous for females; they would have driven each other off the cliffs when they were in season.

The houses were tiny, about twenty feet at the most. They were divided into an "upper room" and a "lower room." A partition was made between them by placing a dresser on one side and a cupboard on the other. The lower room was where the family slept. The upper room was the kitchen. It was big enough to hold the animals at night, or to lay out a corpse. There were too many corpses.

There was no doctor on the islands, and no priest. If you needed either, you had to make the three-mile trip to the mainland. After that, it was a five mile walk to the priest, or ten miles to the doctor. Of course, this was possible only if you were able to make the crossing at all. For many days in the year, the seas were too stormy.

Tomas O Criomhthain, in his book, tells the story of a trip he made to the mainland for a wedding. He was caught there by bad weather, and had to remain there for three weeks before he could return. His family thought he had drowned, and was surprised when he returned home.

In 1946, just before Christmas, a young man, Seainin O Cearna, collapsed while helping his father catch a sheep to slaughter for the Christmas feast. He had meningitis, and he had the bad fortune to be ill at the stormy time of year, when no boat could cross to the mainland. The island's population had been steadily declining for many years -- it had had 176 inhabitants at its peak in 1916 -- and after Seainin's death it plummeted. Six years later the government evacuated the remaining 22 residents to the mainland. Some of them were provided with cottages by the sea, where they could still see their beloved Blasket Island.