Blaskets Center

The Blaskets are a set of islands some few miles west of the Dingle Peninsula. People have lived on them, some of them, for centuries, in relative isolation. The last few left in 1954, under government order, when it became clear they could no longer be provided essential health and other services. In any case, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, linguists and particularly those with interests in strains of Irish less affected by contact with English, discovered the Blaskets, and a flurry of books appeared...both by the scholars as well as by the inhabitants, who had a wealth of folklore and social history to convey. Somehow we missed the Blasket Center, a museum of the Blaskets, on our 2009 visit to the area, but we were sure to see it this year.

A look down the long corridor of the Center

Articles on the various scholars and natives who carried their language and stories
into print

Not least of whom was Muiris O Suilleabhain, Twenty Years A-Growing

Who, along with others, emigrated to New York; compelling photo, I thought

Among the exhibits

Blasket terrain

The big island

The western-most

And a thought to ponder

As we left, clouds were spilling over the hills to the east