The view of Inis Tuaisceart is engrained on my mind for a number of reasons. Firstly as a young secondary school student I saw it every year that I visited the west Kerry Gaeltacht. It was part of the 3 week course that we would go on a cycling trip of the local area and the circuit around Slea Head was always greatly looked forward to and enjoyed by students and teachers. We would pass this view on our way from Baile an Fheirteirigh to Dun Chaoin and it always struck me as an amazing place, 3 miles out from the mainland across a treacherous stretch of water. It sits beside the Great Blasket Island but was not inhabited on a year round basis like the bigger island. Apparently the Blasket Islanders would put sheep to graze on it for the summer months and young men would be sent to Inis Tuaisceart to look after the sheep. We saw it in all kinds of weather, from bright sunshine to pouring rain and sometimes we could barely make out the outline of the island through the mist and fog. I remember also that RTE used it as their last image as they played the national anthem and shut down broadcasting each night in the 1970's and 80's. They had a beautiful image as the sun was setting over the island on a late summer's evening. There was a golden glow to that image and it made Inis Tuaisceart seem like an idyllic place. There was a sense of peace and contentment to it. When I studied the literature of the Blasket Islands I was amazed by the quality of the writing and the stories of the lives of the people who lived in these remote parts scratching out a living from the land and the sea. The harshness of the landscape gave Peig Sayers, Tomás O Criomhthainn and other island writers, an ability to see the richness of the life around them and to capture the character of the people in their struggles and toils. The perpetual struggle with the unyielding elements and landscape proved too much for many of the islanders so that they emigrated to America and other far flung parts to try and build a better life for themselves. The Great Blasket island was evacuated in 1953 and has largely remained uninhabited since that time. The story of their lives is told in the Blasket Centre in Dun Chaoin. The setting of the centre is ideal for getting a sense of the people and the landscape as when you walk down to the end of the display area, which has all the information on the lives of the people, you can look directly out on the islands. In my painting of Inis Tuaisceart I wanted to capture a sense of the powerful and treacherous sea that the islanders had to row across in all kinds of weather to fetch priests and doctors to tend to their physical and spiritual needs. Inis Tuaisceart is also known as 'The Sleeping Giant and as 'An Fear Marbh' (The Dead Man) because the outline of the island look like a body in repose, sleeping soundly and calmly, and also ready to be taken away for burial. I wanted to show serenity and calmness in the landscape and also to convey the solidity of a seaswept island that has endured the ravages and battering of the Atlantic waves for thousands of years. The land on the island is poor quality and gives little possibility of growing crops to sustain any brave folk who might seek to eke out a living there. As a result of this you can see in the painting that there are no houses or signs of habitation. I wanted to give a sense that Inis Tuaisceart is almost aloof and removed from the cares of our world. There is a softness to the empty landscape but also a sense of a faded of jaded life.
