The conferral was performed by Daire Ó Baoill and his short address is carried here with a facsimile of the framed certificate that was presented to Diarmuid to mark his inauguration. That honour was formally conferred on him at the November Zoom session of the HSC, a night on which we launched Young Singer/Musician in Residence Cathal Caulfield’s pamphlet and recordings, a launch described in detail below. Uachtaráin Diarmuid Ó CathasaighĪs you will know from the tribute published in The Sweet Nightingale, no, 16, September 2020, the Howth Singing Circle (HSC) invited Diarmuid Ó Cathasaigh to become our Uachtaráin. In the meantime, may we wish everyone peace and health for 2021. We have an exciting Burns Nicht weekend organised – albeit it will be done virtually – and details appear below. You have let us know about your experiences and in this Nightingale you will find some hopefully helpful notes to enable everyone get the most out of their Zoom experience. We have tried to maintain contact through our Zoom sessions, a learning curve for us all – those administering the sessions, those performing and those just watching or listening. Our best wishes to everyone, stay strong and stay healthy. Weather permitting, ferries also take visitors around the islands during the summer months.Saoithe: Paddy Daly, Niamh Parsons, Ann Riordan The Sweet Nightingale New Series, no 16, December 2020 The Best Laid PlansĬovid continues to threaten us all and deny us opportunities to meet together and enjoy singing and playing music. We had no court, no doctor, no nurse and no priest, but we didn’t need them, because we had the best community you could imagine.“įor those interested in the Blasket Islands, the Great Blasket Centre in Dunquin offers a rich account of the islands’ history and culture.
He also released his memoir, “From The Great Blasket To America – The Last Memoir by an Islander,” the first English-language addition to the Blasket Islanders’ rich literary history.Īt the time he told IrishCentral, „It’s the most beautiful place on Earth, but the best thing about it was the people.
Micheal O Cearna (Michael Carney), then 93 and the oldest surviving Blasket Islander, made the journey from his home in Springfield, Massachusetts to mark the occasion. The anniversary of the evacuation was marked two years ago as part of The Gathering. They can return to the island in good weather to look after their sheep.” They realized that there was no future for them on the Blasket. They were waiting on the shore with their furniture and belongings, but the waves were so dangerous that they had to leave everything except for a chair and two boxes behind.Īn officer from the Irish Land Commission present for the evacuation, Dan O’Brien, told The Kerryman, “The islanders were all ready to depart. The remaining residents, from families by the names of Dunleavy, O’Sullivan, Guiheen and Keane, were to be moved to new homes – cottages at Dunquin on the Dingle Peninsula. “The Atlantic, which dominates the lives of the Blasket Island people, asserted its supremacy on Tuesday, the day appointed by the Irish Land Commission to have this community of twenty-two people and their furniture transferred over the Sound to four newly-built cottages at Dunquin with three acres of arable land attached.” The Blasket Islanders – by then a population of only 22 – were cut off from communication or any emergency assistance from the mainland and facing increasingly extreme weather patterns.Ī Kerryman article from the day sums it up best: The 1953 evacuation, ordered by then-Taoiseach Eamon de Valera, was largely accepted as a necessity. 2015 Last of the Blasket Islanders were evacuated to mainland in 1953Īt its peak, Great Blasket Island had only some 175 residents, but their cultural output was immense, including important Irish language works such as „The Islander,“ by Thomas O’Crohan, „Twenty Years a-Growing,“ by Maurice O’Sullivan, and „Peig,“ by Peig Sayers.Ĭurrach approaching Dunquin Harbor from the Blasket Islands, 1960.
0 kommentar(er)
