An A-Z of Things to See in Ireland – Islands
In this series “An A-Z of Things to See in Ireland“ I am now forging towards the middle of the alphabet. If it is ‘I’ and you are thinking of things to see in Ireland than you’d be hard pushed to not consider islands. Here is my rationale for making a visit to one of Ireland’s off shore islands. But let us also not forget that Ireland has many islands inside the country, too.
Ireland is, of course, an island in itself. You have only to land in Ireland and there you are already on a very large island facing the North Atlantic to the west and the Irish and Celtic Seas to the east. Lawrence Durrell noted in Reflections on a Marine Venus that there are some people who suffer from islomania. He defines them as people who find islands “somehow irresistible”. These “little worlds surrounded by the sea” – or a lough – “fills them with indescribable intoxication.”
For spiritual tourists an island has an especial allure.
Given that Ireland is an island I think that this goes someway towards explaining the fascination, obsession and irresistible pull of this country. But you may want to see an island off this Island or even an island within this Island. Part of the attraction I think goes back to the ‘thin places’ previously blogged. Islands are ‘edgy’ places, a very finite living space surrounded by the infinite of the ocean. Island living requires a body and soul to be self- sustaining and, I think, it is the spiritual challenge of isolation that draws spiritual tourists.
The old stories also speak of ‘Hy Brasil’, the place of Tir na Nog, lying beyond the ninth wave off the coast of Eireann. Islands are magnets for spiritual seekers and spiritual tourists.
Because I do believe that even the most agnostic tourist if drawn to visit an island is really on a spiritual journey. The early Irish monks were drawn to the offshore islands or created great monasteries like St. Patrick’s Purgatory in the middle of Lough Derg. There is within us all an unconscious wish to meet the infinite as well as testing ourselves with isolation. An island is a challenge to contemplative action. That may seem contradictory but the Irish monks knew all about this just as Zen monks today would have an understanding of the motivations of their early Christian brethren and sisters.
First you need to cross the water. Ferries operate to all the inhabited off-shore islands. The Aran Islands also have air service. But the usual way of crossing is in a ferry, either with or without your car. You have a choice of many islands to visit. If you are a keen bird watcher than you may want to make your way to Ballycastle in Co. Antrim to take the ferry across to Rathlin Island. This small island now has 100 year round residents but is home to thousands of sea birds. There is a Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) reserve on the island. The island is also one of forty-three designated Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) in Northern Ireland so it would be of especial interest to the natural historian.
Over off the coast of Donegal lies Tory Island. Tory Island offers the opportunity for cycling and seal watching. But for the spiritual tourist the real attraction with be the unique T- shaped cross, also known as a Tau Cross. Tory Island offers one of only two examples in the whole of Ireland of this type of cross.
Travelling down the west coast of Ireland we next find Clare Island, off the coast of County Mayo. Bird watching, cycling and walking are all activities for island visitors. However, you can also volunteer to WWOOF. That has nothing to do with canines by the way but stands for Willing Workers on Organic Farms. Volunteers get room and board in exchange with help on an organic farm – that can be weeding, feeding animals, cooking the dinner or painting and outhouse. For budget travellers Wwoofing is a unique way of getting close to local communities in rural areas.
Down the west coast off Galway are the Aran Islands. I commend Deborah Tall’s The Island of the White Cow; Memories of an Irish Island (English and Irish Edition)
Here: nothing but the island itself, largely left alone. We are free – freedom’s the first thrilling sensation…we’ve come to a world of heady, leisurely beauty where there are no laws, only courtesies and conventions…the sense of isolation is marvellously acute, the deep silence unnatural to my ear, the rest of the world suddenly something to contemplate from a distance, or ignore. I am drunk on it, a natural for islomania.”
At the opposite end of the country, off the coast of Cork, is Clear Island. Now if you are wanting to listen to the cream of Irish storytellers than you would want to hot foot it to Clear Island in September for their annual storytelling festival.
Turning inland I want to tell you about the holy islands in some of Ireland’s loughs. Station Island is located in Donegal’s Lough Derg. A famous monastery, St. Patrick’s Purgatory, hosts pilgrimages and retreats for visitors. For the hardiest spiritual tourist a stay on Station Island may be the challenge they need for reviving inspiration and dedication. Pack Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney’s poetry collection called “Station Island” and you will have a noble fellow pilgrim. The collection was inspired by the second of his pilgrimages to St. Patrick’s Purgatory.
Just to confuse you there is another Lough Derg in Ireland and it has a holy island too! Holy Island or Iniscealtra is located near to Mountshannon in Co. Clare. For students of Celtic Spirituality the monastic remains and historic sites will be of great interest. There are ruins of four churches, a round tower, high crosses that date from prior to 1000CE. There are also grave sites and bullauns and a holy well. This was a place of early Christian pilgrimage important to Celtic spirituality in the early Christian history of Ireland.