Isle of Dreams

But there was also great life and laughter, story telling that traced back centuries, and the creation of unique bonds between an isolated people that somehow made a living from the stony soil.

On the mainland, directly across from the island is the Blasket Island Heritage Center, a magnificent building which houses the history of the island and the extraordinary island people who dwelt there.

I was privileged to open their annual conference last weekend on a different Blasket Island theme. This year that theme was emigration, and they

came from New York, Springfield, Melbourne and London to spend a weekend recalling the island and its people.

Thanks in large part to a wonderful American scholar called Tom Biuso, now sadly deceased, the American trek of the island people is well documented.

Most who left ended up in Massachusetts around the towns of Springfield and Holyoke where West Kerry people tended to congregate. Mike Kearney is among the last of the hardy breed who came off the island to seek a new life elsewhere.

When he entered the lecture hall at the Blasket Center the applause was long and loud. Through him the connection to the magical island to the west was still tangible and real. Earlier that night a mist and fog had hung over the island, while elsewhere the sky was clear.

It reminded me of Hy Brasil, that magical and mythical island of Celtic lore where happiness and peace can be found.

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