Blasket Memories
The Life of an Irish Island Community
Pádraig Tyers Editor
ISBN 1856352307
Mercier Press 1998

Blasket Memories presents a powerful insight into the lives of those who lived on the Blasket Island and describes how the island was evacuated in 1953 when their numbers decreased to a point where they could no longer survive as a separate community.
The first part of Blasket Memories is based on the writing of Sean Ó Criomhthain, son of Tomás who wrote the internationally renowned “The Islandman”. He vividly describes the immense difficulties experienced by the fishing community at the hands of landlords and bailiffs, a s they battled with the harsh elements. Two things helped to sustain them: their firm faith in God and their support for one another. They were great lovers of music and some even made their own violins. Seán tells with great glee of the coming of the first gramophone to the island.

The second part of Blasket Memories consists of interviews with Sean O Criomhthain, Nora Ni Shéaghda, a mainlander who taught for many years in the Island school; Seán Ó Guithín, who was one of the last group to leave the Island at Christmas 1953; and Cáit Bean Uí Naoilchairáin, widow of Muiris O Súilleabháin, the author of Twenty Years a Growing.