The InishkeasInis Gé

The Inishkeas Co. Mayo

Black Rock

Achill

Aughleam

Binghamstown

Belmullet

Falmore

The Inishkeas are islands off the coast of the Mullet

Peninsula in Mayo. There is a North and a South island called Inishkea North(Inis Gé Thuaidh) and Inishkea

South, (Inis Gé Theas).They used to be inhabited but the islands have been deserted since 1934 when the last people came off

them.

The InishkeasInis Gé

This Project

In this project I’m going to focus in on a few subjects all about the Inishkeas,

Life on the Inishkeas

Coming off the Inishkeas

The Inishkea Whaling Station

Natural Inishkeas

Life On The Inishkeas

Life on the Inishkeas was hard and required a lot of work to even survive. The islanders made a living from fishing and the sale of kelp (seaweed). There was no electricity so everything had to be done by hand and took a long time. Life was also very inconvenient as many things such as turf etc. had to be taken from the mainland. During long storms the islanders could have been cut off from the mainland for even a few months!

The Community While the islanders got on well in their local island

community it is said that there was a rivalry between the two islands. Sometimes they even threw stones at each other across the narrowest channel between the two islands – Fact or fiction?

In the early years the children on the South island had to go to school on the North Island. Though in later years a school was built on the South island. There was no graveyard on the South island either (none was ever built unlike the school) so the dead had to be buried on either the North Island or Falmore on the mainland. On the South island there were up to 35 families and 18 on the North but it varied over time. There are signs that the islands were inhabited since early Christian times as there are Celtic stone slabs on both islands.

Both islands had their own seperate rí or king that cast lots every 3rd year to share out the land used for growing crops. The king also collected rents for the landlord.

Housing The houses were made out of stones found

on the island and were plastered as seen on the left in this picture.

Many writers commented that the furniture in the houses was superior to that of the mainland as it was mostly obtained from shipwrecks. The islanders also slept on feather beds while most of the people of Erris slept on straw or rushes. The islanders obtained these feathers on a nearby island, Black Rock. Birds laying eggs in the cliff ledges were tame during this time and so were easy to knock with a stick into a boat at the bottom of the cliff.

THERE WERE THREE ROOMS INSIDE THE HOUSES WITH ONE OR TWO FIRE PLACES AT EITHER END. THE FRONT AND BACK DOOR WERE USUALLY LOCATED IN THE MIDDLE ROOM. HERE ARE TWO BEDS END TO END IN A HOUSE STILL INTACT.

The houses here were very exposed to the sea and if you were to go and look inside the ruins you would be able to see that they are full of sand whipped up by the sea wind coming ashore. When the houses were inhabited a wall was built to prevent this happening. Much of the wall however has collapsed and there are very few traces of it left to be seen. Some of the wall was buried in sand and in the recent big storms last winter some of it was re-exposed.

The Inishkea Whaling Station In 1908 a Norweigan company

erected a whaling station on Inishkea South.

The company stayed until 1914 and left because of bad weather causing the lack of whales being caught. The company were also paying the 20 – 40 islanders that had been employed and were not making enough profit out of the Whaling station.

Parts of an old boiler from the whaling station still on the Island.

Coming off the Inishkeas On the 28 of October 1927, a group of 30 curraghs

each containing two men rowed out after dark on their usual fishing trip. The day had been very calm and so the men ignored the low reading on their barometers. The men were only a short distance from shore when a violent storm whipped up. Many of the crews had an instinct something was wrong and turned back early on however of the six crews that remained out only two men survived and the other ten died. The two that survived were thrown up on rocks on the mainland and made their way to the local pub in Aughleam. When they got there one of the men had to have the baler prized out of his hand as he was in so much shock. The Islanders finally decided to leave the islands after this and the last people had left by 1934.

Natural InishkeasAround the Inishkeas I have seen Basking

sharks, dolphins, seals, sunfish, red gurnard and many other species of fish.

A Sunfish

Two Seals A Red Gurnard

Some Dolphins

On the Islands there are seagulls, Oystercatchers, geese and many other birds.

Every November flocks of Barnacle Geese stop to feed on the island on their way to Iceland and Greenland.

Some tiny Oystercatcher eggs.

An Oystercatcher

A Greater Black Backed Seagull

CreditsPicturesGoogle ImagesGoogle EarthSome taken by me or my family.Informationhttp://irishislands.info/inishkea.html#vineyhttp://www.theirishstory.com/2010/11/24/fi

lming-inishkea-whaling-station-1908/#.VHeYiDGsWSp