1

Issue 6 September 2008

It is normally the Spring that brings new life but here on Sherkin it seems to be the Autumn! While other parts of the world are dealing with hurricanes and floods we are busy welcoming the following new arrivals………..

After the longest gestation period in history, the new bus has finally arrived! She may not be as pretty as last months baby but no doubt she will be as thirsty as residents and visitors keep her busy driving them around the Island. Best wishes go to the new drivers in this venture. See inside for further details of the service.

While most summer visitors have now left the island, the Wall family has decided to stay on. Paula and James, along with their children Cathal, Conor and Colm are a very welcome addition to the community, and we all hope they have a happy time here.

And we welcome back DIT, a big hello to all returning staff and students, and a special welcome to the new batch of first years who begin their four-year commitment this month. Good luck to all of them.

And finally we welcome Aideen Jennings, the newly appointed teacher of the younger children in the National School.

Contents

Page 2 – Weather Report

Page 3 – DIT

Page 7 – Tidy Island’s near success

Page 7 – Cardiac First Response programme

Page 11 – Library news

2

Sherkin Island Bus Service

The Sherkin Island Bus has finally arrived. The drivers Martin Lawlor, Mags Murphy and Michael Collins will be starting a new scheduled service soon, all details shall be posted to all households.

Any suggestions or idea’s for the schedule please contact SherkinBus@Gmail.com or Dan 087 2988 098

August Weather Report

Sherkin Island Marine Station

The rainfall for August was 115.9 mm. This is only 11th in the wettest August since recording began at the Station in 1972.

1986 240.5 mm 1985 191.5 mm 1999 153.5 mm 1997 147.0 mm 1988 142.4 mm 1992 130.1 mm 1974 128.1 mm 1980 126.6 mm 1979 124.5 mm 1998 122.8 mm

There was 1.0 mm of rain, or more, on 16 days during this August. 78 mm of the total fell on just five days: 4th 19.1 mm 8th 19.3 mm 11th 16.2 mm 15th 11.4 mm 17th 12.0 mm The heaviest daily rainfall occurred on: 30th August 1998 63.3 mm 5th August 1986 58.5 mm 24th August 1986 40.3 mm 13th August 1978 37.7 mm 2nd August 1997 36.5 mm 1st August 1984 36.0 mm 4th August 2007 35.6 mm 23rd August 1977 34.7 mm 20th August 1986 34.1 mm The driest August was 12.8 mm in 1976.

SIDs Committee Meeting

Thursday 18th September

Open forum 8pm-8.15pm.

3

BA in Visual Art Programme

Maggie O’Reilly

The BA in Visual Art Programme begins the current semester on 12th September in the Sherkin Island Community Hall.

The Programme is delighted to welcome 20 first-year students to the Programme and to Sherkin. It also welcomes back the third and fourth year students who have been loyal through difficult times. This is a big step forward for the Programme as it ensures its survival and is evidence of how much interest there is in doing a third-level degree in a different environment.

Most of the first-year students are living in the wider West Cork area. This makes life a little easier in terms of coming and going. The modules are quite intense and a lot is packed into each day; after a two or four-day weekend its good not to face into a long drive home.

A few of the students travelling from further away will stay on Sherkin as they have in the past.

The Proposed Schedule up to Christmas is as follows:

Sept. 12 – 15; Sept. 19 – 22; Oct. 3 – 4; Oct. 10 – 12; Oct. 17 – 18; Oct. 24 – 25; Nov. 7 – 10; Nov. 14 – 17; Dec. 5 – 6; Dec. 12 – 13 and Dec. 19 – 20.

When the schedule is finalised it will be posted in the Community Hall, School, Ferry, Jolly Roger Pub and Islander’s Rest. Copies are available at the Community Hall, please call 028 20802.

The current fourth-year students will graduate in February 2009 on Sherkin. This is a piece of history happening in our time and is probably the first for a third-level degree being conferred on Sherkin Island. The Franciscan Friars may have set the precedent but some research needs to be done to verify or disprove the theory. Either way, this is a positive and exciting event.

We look forward to meeting familiar faces, especially those from the neighbouring islands of Cape & Heir, and welcoming and getting to know new students

The Man from Horseshoe Bay Klaus Havemann

I was standing with my back to the small whitewashed house on the western side of Horseshoe Bay, watching how the sun gilded the rock on the opposite side, making thousands of lights on the surface of the sea .

“Hello!”

Startled, I turned and looked into the weather-beaten face of an old man. We stared at each other in a way that reminded me of the time when I was a boy one early morning in Hestehaven near Hillerod, and I suddenly found myself only a few meters from a stag. Two animals, hesitating and on guard, we looked into each other’s eyes until the stag, with quiet dignity, turned its head and disappeared into the young oak trees.

The man spoke to me in a language I did not understand, then he signaled me and I followed him into the house where he served tea and glasses of whiskey. We sat in the kitchen with two chairs, a table, and a stove with a black kettle and frying pan. A paraffin lamp with

4

broken glass hung from the ceiling and against the wall stood a worm-eaten dresser with cups, glasses and plates. There was no sink, only a basin and one enamelled water jug like the one in Lundstrom’s paintings. The kitchen window facing southwest was completely clouded by frying smoke creating an orange colour in the afternoon sun that made you think it wasn’t a window but a fireplace.

He was a thin man and not very tall. He was beautiful in a way that only old men can be beautiful with dignified features and resilience disregarding age. Thick blue veins stood under the skin of his hands and his eyes were lit by a rare whiteness around grey-green pupils.

We sat silently drinking the tea and whiskey. Suddenly he started singing, and even though I didn’t understand a word there was no doubt that it was a cheerful song. He changed to another tune, clutched two spoons to play on and using his mouth as an instrument, diddle-de-dudoleli-dum, he jumped up from the chair and started to dance around the kitchen floor in hobnail boots.

When he finished we both clapped our hands and toasted. In Gaelic and with sign language he insisted that now it was my turn. In despair I shook my head which made him laugh and pour more whiskey into the glasses. Gradually I thawed and sang: “Det Var En Lordag Aften’. He sat completely still and when the song was over I looked at him and saw tears running down his wrinkled cheeks. He put the spoons back in the drawer and signaled to me to follow him out of the house.

Outside on the path he beckoned me and we went in silence along the small paths, through the high ferns and the thorny furze with its chrome-yellow flowers until we suddenly came to a plateau with nine enormous stones spread in an irregular pattern.

At first, he stood still with his face turned towards the setting sun, then he picked up a stone from the ground and gave it to me so that I could feel the weight. He walked from stone to stone in a circle, then stood in the middle and waited. Suddenly he jumped to the first stone and started to strike it, then to the next and crossed back and forth striking all the stones.

I was convinced that the man was either mad or that the whiskey had gone to his head when I realized that what he was doing was (making) music. Not only did each stone have its own timbre but each point he struck on the stones gave out a different tone.

Now it was my turn to be deeply moved, and while the sun slowly disappeared into the sea and the Blue Hour fell, he ended his concert, threw the stone to the ground and wiping his hands on his trousers he turned smilingly towards me to receive his applause.

We walked back down the cliff in silence. Outside the house, without saying a word, we shook hands and parted.

Music Lessons

Music lessons for the childen will begin again every Monday after school in the school, starting 15th September. We are pleased to welcome back the very

talented teacher, Hazel Jennings.

5

Off the Ground Theatre – Cyrano De Bergerac Lewis Ashby-Whelan

The ‘Off The Ground’ theatre company, who come and perform here every summer, are

always welcomed and thoroughly enjoyed by the whole Sherkin Island community. Their comedic and intelligent style can be appreciated by all ages: their interpretations of classic texts and stories are highly enjoyable and full of great character. Their past performances, such as ‘Wind in the Willows’ and ‘Twelfth Night’, have been huge fun and very successful. However, this year’s performance;’ Le True Histoire de Cyrano De Bergerac’, while being characteristically entertaining, showed a gripping and dark thread compared to their usual well rooted and successful musical style. The play was a witty tale of Cyrano de Bergerac, the French soldier who felt himself to be ugly, so he could not be loved, and how he sacrifices the possibility

of love for a friend’s happiness.

The weather for this year’s performance was unexpectedly good and the sun shone throughout, which definitely pleased the performers and audience, as the forecast had been for rain. I enjoyed this year’s play and was pleased to see that ‘Off The Ground’ continue to come up with unusual and interesting methods of storytelling.

Letters Again Allen Phillips

It was Sunday and a deadline was approaching. Two starts had been made of a story about letters. They had been written about before but now there was a lot of staring out the window trying to find the story to write that day. The letters were in the room, the downstairs room where there was a fireplace, shelves with old fashion vinyl records, books, collections of design and garden magazines. In the first story nothing had been done with them now there were changes coming to the house, space would be limited, some things were going to go. Putting it off was the easiest thing to do, like before, just leave them alone in their bags, always making room for them whatever was happening or going to happen. Just because I had kept the letters for so long didn’t validate a place for them in the house, maybe once that was the case but not anymore. It was the same with the trees that surrounded the house, not cutting them down for some weak sentimental reason, didn’t hold sway anymore. They were blocking the light, the windows of the house were not open to the view, so the letters took up space and weighed me down, blocking the light of the present with the darkness of the detritus from the past which really was an ever lengthening time ago.

When I had left the house for my last trip I was sure the letters had been upstairs where the five bedrooms had been. As I had reduced the number to one bedroom with four proper walls and two bedrooms with three walls but keeping their doors and with movable walls now, curtains, there was less space for clutter. The letters had been in their bags in the open centre area where there had been two bedrooms, between the replacement sleeping spaces, beneath bookshelves which covered an outside wall. Then I came back after travelling and there they were, downstairs in the room where I was writing now, waiting to be dealt with, behind my chair. They had been moved downstairs by someone.

6

As far as I knew there was only the one key to the front door, with that key in my pocket it seemed to be a mystery, spirits and levitation were not something I thought much about. I did find out how it had happened, I was bound to. Unlike the inactive time before, this time, with more years having past, I went through the bags, no more sitting and looking at them, thinking what I might do. No more looking at the dark mass of trees outside the windows too, no more wondering what was behind the trees, I had started cutting the trees, soon I would be at the light, at the view.

This time I was doing it, taking the bags of letters back upstairs to the open room where the old armchairs were and the new rag mats made of many coloured strips of rag, sat and lay. From the windows that lined the open room more light had begun to flow through the room with the tree clearing begun.

Slowly, on the floor, piles began, small layers of thoughts at first, each letter holding not only thoughts but questions, plans, ideas, sketches, the, almost dust now, remains of leaves collect on solitary walks in a letter filled with wishes for my company. When it got too dark to read the handwriting on the envelopes I had to get up and turn on a light. I stood still looking down at the piles of letters; one or two of them had slipped over and were making round mounds of angles and lines with the edges of the envelopes. Seeing those in such a way I was struck by how little space they in fact took up and it turned out they were not all from the same person as I had originally thought. Some letters were from college friends, some from the people I had met in the cities I had lived in before moving back to the house in the diminishing forest.

What was missing though was a package of letters that would have made the smallest pile had I been able to put them up in a pile, their absence was the answer to the bags having moved. It was the one collection of correspondence I was supposed to have carried with me and never had. They had come from a woman I had known when I was younger and more ignorant than now, when sensitivity to another’s feeling had eluded me. Leaving her letters in a cold and vacant house, where there was no idle and indistinct conversation from another room, no human warmth, had been a mistake. She had come to the house where we had spent some time together and got in through the kitchen window. She knew I was the kind of person who kept all the letters he got. It was she who had carried my letter bags down to the study where there was a fireplace and a fold-out bed; there she searched for her letters to me.

How do I know this is what happed? After all she left no trace of her presence and there was no ash in the fireplace. Of course, that was her point; to remove herself completely, leave no physical trace. I smiled when I saw she had missed a photo I still have of her pinned to a corkboard in my kitchen from where I can see the sea now through the remaining trees that frame the view. And irony of ironies she had eventually written me a letter.

I was still left with the other letters. The woman who wrote those, the bigger pile of letters, will never come for them so they are safe here. Safe from her, but not safe from me.

Tidy Islands Marks Awarded

When compared to the marks gained by the winners of the Tidy Island section, Bere Island, it is obvious that the areas where Sherkin needs to improve are :

a) overall development approach

b) wildlife and natural amenities.

7

In all other areas, Sherkin did at least as well as, if not better than Bere Island.

So, the Tidy Island Committee would like to thank everyone who played a part in keeping Sherkin looking well, and would also be glad to hear suggestions as to how improvements could be made for next year. They are also looking for volunteers to grow shrubs and plants for next years competition.

The next meeting date shall not be until October, so please feel free to contact Matthew with your ideas on 20802.

Max Mark Awarded

Overall Development Approach

The Built Environment Landscaping Wildlife and Natural Amenities Litter Control Waste Minimisation Tidiness Residential Areas Roads, Streets and Back Areas General Impression

50 50 50 50 50 20 30 40 50 10

36 36 36 30 38 22 12 27 35 8

TOTAL MARK 400 280

Defibrillator – Susan Murphy-Wickens

Many of us will have heard of a defibrillator. This is a machine that will deliver an electrical shock to stabilise a chaotic heart rhythm, following cardiac arrest.

We would like to get a defibrillator for the island but unfortunately it is not just a case of buying a machine and sticking it on a wall. We would first have to set up a Cardiac First Response Programme on the island (more about this later).

A number of us have had a meeting with Catherine Cahalane of the HSE. She has given us guidelines as to what the requirements would be to set up such a programme on the island. The first thing Catherine stressed is that the most important thing we can do as a community is for as many people as possible to learn how to do CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation). This is where you would learn the signs of cardiac arrest and administer a sequence of air and compressions to keep oxygen circulating around the victim's body until the emergency services arrive.

8

Though a defibrillator might help to stabilise a chaotic heart rhythm, this alone will not keep a person's chance of survival alive until professional help arrives on the island. This is where the role of someone trained in CPR is vital.

Having a defibrillator on the island would be a bonus but with every moment counting, crucial time could be lost before a defibrillator might reach a victim from another part of the island. Once a defibrillator reaches a victim, CPR is also an integral part of using the machine. In fact, the responder may be told by the machine NOT to defibrillate and so the responder would continue with CPR until professional help arrives.

Cardiac First Response Programme

A Cardiac First Response Programme on the island would need as least 10 people to be trained to use a defibrillator. A much wider number of people would need to learn CPR. The 10 people would be involved in a rota system, where a certain number would be "on call" and would be notified, either by mobile or pager system, of a collapsed person. They would then attend the scene with the defibrillator and administer assistance.

The chain of events would be something as follows:

Incident (collapsed person)

Check response

Phone 112 or 999

Ambulance despatched from Skibbereen/Lifeboat

Ambulance control contacts local Cardiac First Responder to request attendance

CPR would be applied until Cardiac First Responder or Emergency Services are on scene.

It is hoped that the HSE might provide us with one defibrillator and that we would buy another one ourselves. Money would also be needed to buy storage units, pager systems, etc..

As a first step, we are holding a meeting to discuss the programme on Sunday 21st September at 2.30pm in The Islander's Rest (the Community Hall is in use). We have also provisional dates for CPR training and we are asking people to choose a date and we will pick one Thursday and one Saturday when training will take place. (The CPR course is 4 hours so people only attend one of the training days.):

9

Provisional Dates for CPR training:

Thursday 25th September - 1pm to 5pm

or

Thursday 2nd October - 1pm to 5pm

OR

Saturday 4th October - 1pm to 5pm

or

Saturday 11th October - 1pm to 5pm

We will see which dates are most popular and will notify people when the training will take place. Let us know on the day, and if you can't make the meeting, you could give your name to Matthew or Mags in the hall, at 028-20802. The number responding for training in CPR will give us a good idea of how the programme might progress on the island.

Even if you are not interested in training for CPR, PLEASE COME ALONG. The Cardiac First Response Programme, should it take off on the island, needs more people involved for other important functions. You might be the ideal person to take responsibility of a certain section, for example:

checking equipment on a regular basis keeping records of training updates restocking fundraising Chairperson, Secretary, Treasurer

This is not something we can enter into lightly. As a community, we have to make a huge commitment to training, organisation, fundraising etc.. We can't just buy or be given units and forget about them after one or two years. This will be an ongoing project.

PLEASE COME AND SUPPORT THIS

on Sunday 21st September at 2.30pm in The Islander's Rest.

Please contact Matthew or Mags

028 20802

10

A View from Fin O’Reilly

As I said in the last issue the future is looking dim all over. We have no fossil fuels to fall back on, no oil wells or coal mines and our peat bogs are getting lower in firing and Kinsale gas isn’t going to last forever and we can’t even call it our own. Practically every other E.U. country has nuclear power even though it’s not a very nice element to be depending on especially with the possibility of an explosion or a terrorist attack. When you think of Iraq, India and parts of Africa, they are blowing up their own neighbours and brothers and sisters and for what? There is no gain. They would hardly have any feeling or respect for our country. We all saw what happened in the U.S.A., in 9/11 and when a suicide bomber is prepared to blow themselves up it will take more than prayers to make them see sense. Hopefully it will never come to that. One country can win or lose a war but one cannot win war against terrorists because you don’t know who they are. However, going back to fossil fuels, we will certainly have to revert to the old days when lifestyles were much more healthy. It is cheerful to know that at least in country areas we will be better off than in cities as we can grow our own food and can survive without oil, coal or gas as we did in my young days. (I will tell more about this in the next newsletter). It is a case of : “Let Not What You Cannot Have Your Cheer Of Mind Destroy”. It looks as if prices will keep going up and this is hard when one is used to the luxury of modern living to think of cutting back. I cannot see it changing for the better for some time. We cannot do anything about a rise in wages or pensions. Less than 12 months ago the cost of living was only half what it is now and as Charlie Haughey said we will have to tighten our belts. At the present time there is no spare cash in the exchequer to buy anything and the country is in the red from borrowed money. One government blames the other all the time when anything goes wrong with whoever is in power. It’s all a game of bluff! The stable door was open too long when things were good; it’s too late closing it now when the horse is gone and it looks like he will be gone a long while before he gets his return fare!

Speaking of nuclear power and some of its side-effects that are not so good. In France in 2003 the heat wave plus the cooling water temperatures rose so high, and, the reactors cooling made the rivers so hot that a lot of the power stations had to be closed down for want of sufficient cooling in order to run safely. If we have another heat wave like the one in 2003 lots of nuclear power stations will have similar problems which is very dangerous. For instance, take the Solway Firth; if an explosion occurred there it would destroy everything in the area as well as the Isle of Man and the east coast of Ireland would be affected if we got an easterly wind. We don’t have to worry about a nuclear plant in Ireland as there is no money to build one.

11

Sherkin Library News August 08 Josephine Jefferies

Congratulations to five year old Luke Fitzgerald for winning third prize in the Nationwide Design a T shirt competition held during July and August. He took his design of a shark from a library book he borrowed and added the word ‘Sharkboy’. Some of you will remember Luke, he helped me out in the library and others will remember him for his generous body painting talents. Did the permanent marker come off? Luke was visiting Sherkin with his mum and Adrian Broadband . August 08 Library Statistics 15 new or renewed memberships 294 books borrowed 26 Internet sessions = 13 hrs Some of the books accounted for in August were carried over from July due to Gremlins in the Library System. Autumn and cosy evenings in front of the fire are coming in on us and where would we be without a book to snuggle up with? For a limited period of time the Library has a collection of Wilbur Smiths. Wilbur seems to write books by the kilo so the majority of his books are just too fat for our little Library shelves. Come and get em before they wing their way back to the labyrinths of Cork Library HQ. As atmospheric, fading light is an Autumn related commodity, even in front of the fire, we have a great selection of large print books so the peepers don’t become too strained. Romance, mystery, suspense and comedy are well represented. The best selection of Fantasy and Science Fiction we have had in ages is gracing a shelf of its own. And if you just want to sleep while the kids try to escape from the play pen, listen to an audio book. Might send them to sleep as well!!! Classic authors that have recently arrived are: Kurt Vonnegut, John Steinbeck, John Irving, Joseph Heller. The characters haunting the shelves include: The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas Don Quixote Hobbits and Orcs The Famous Five and The Secret Seven The Cat In The Hat The Lambs of God (the author Marele Day has spent time on Sherkin and the setting for this book seems to be inspired by our very own Abbey) And autobiographies ranging from Catherine de Medici to Kiefer Sutherland A section that does not get the attention it deserves is the Young Readers Non Fiction. It contains a fabulous Atlas and a good range of Astronomy books. Maybe parents and youngsters old enough to read the News Letter would like to keep in mind that this is a huge source of information for school projects or homework. We can order a particular subject matter if we don’t have it in stock. There is something for everyone and now the tourists are not taking up valuable browsing space, the library is your oyster!

12

Job Vacancy

Part-time position in N.S Inis Arcain, incororporating secretarial work, cleaning and some supervisory duties. 15 hours per week. Must be willing to have garda clearance. Applications to: Chairperson BOM The Hill Baltimore, with 2 references on or before Fri 19th Sept.

Sherkin Island Development Society Collaborative Arts Project 2008

Autumn 2008 brings an opportunity for Islanders to take part in a new collaborative arts research and development project.

Many of you will be familiar with the pinhole car camera, which was on the pier last May and featured in the Sherkin Newsletter. Now through an Artist in the Community Award, Sheelagh Broderick will work with islanders using pinhole cameras.

The project will comprise of two strands ;

The first will involve learning pinhole camera techniques through making your very own pinhole camera and participating in a European solargraphy project.

The second will be to initiate a discussion about the potential for creating an artwork in collaboration with participants.

It is envisaged that there will be at least three sessions before Christmas. The project will commence on the last weekend in September. If you are interested in getting involved contact Matthew Stephens 086 3642893