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On an Irish Island

by Robert Kanigel (Goodreads Author)

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 56 ratings · 13 reviews

On an Irish Island is a love letter to a vanished way of life, in which Robert Kanigel, the highly praised author of The Man Who Knew Infinity and The One Best Way, tells the story of the Great Blasket, a wildly beautiful island off the west coast of Ireland, renowned during the early twentieth century for the rich communal life of its residents and the unadulterated Irish...more On an Irish Island is a love letter to a vanished way of life, in which Robert Kanigel, the highly praised author of The Man Who Knew Infinity and The One Best Way, tells the story of the Great Blasket, a wildly beautiful island off the west coast of Ireland, renowned during the early twentieth century for the rich communal life of its residents and the unadulterated Irish they spoke. With the Irish language vanishing all through the rest of Ireland, the Great Blasket became a magnet for scholars and writers drawn there during the Gaelic renaissance—and the scene for a memorable clash of cultures between modern life and an older, sometimes sweeter world slipping away.

Kanigel introduces us to the playwright John Millington Synge, some of whose characters in The Playboy of the Western World, were inspired by his time on the island; Carl Marstrander, a Norwegian linguist who gave his place on Norway’s Olympic team for a summer on the Blasket; Marie-Louise Sjoestedt, a Celtic studies scholar fresh from the Sorbonne; and central to the story, George Thomson, a British classicist whose involvement with the island and its people we follow from his first visit as a twenty-year-old to the end of his life.

On the island, they met a colorful coterie of men and women with whom they formed lifelong and life-changing friendships. There’s Tomás O’Crohan, a stoic fisherman, one of the few islanders who could read and write Irish, who tutored many of the incomers in the language’s formidable intricacies and became the Blasket’s first published writer; Maurice O’Sullivan, a good-natured prankster and teller of stories, whose memoir, Twenty Years A-Growing, became an Irish classic; and Peig Sayers, whose endless repertoire of earthy tales left listeners spellbound.

As we get to know these men and women, we become immersed in the vivid culture of the islanders, their hard lives of fishing and farming matched by their love of singing, dancing, and talk. Yet, sadly, we watch them leave the island, the village becoming uninhabited by 1953. The story of the Great Blasket is one of struggle—between the call of modernity and the tug of Ireland’s ancient ways, between the promise of emigration and the peculiar warmth of island life amid its physical isolation. But ultimately it is a tribute to the strength and beauty of a people who, tucked away from the rest of civilization, kept alive a nation’s past, and to the newcomers and islanders alike who brought the island’s remarkable story to the larger world.(less)

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published February 7th 2012 by Knopf

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Apr 25, 2012 Joan rated it 4 of 5 stars

A wonderful book about the people of the Great Basket during the first half of ,the 20th century, both the islanders and those few men and women who went to study the language and became part of the story. The hard lives of the island folk, their love of singing and dance, and story-telling contrast with the lives of the scholars who spend brief weeks with them, but are deeply moved and influenced by those times. It's the story of change and courage, and a tribute to the people who brought the i...more

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Feb 20, 2012 Steve Smits rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read "The Islandman" years ago when living in Ireland after visiting Slea Head on the Dingle peninsula and seeing the Blaskets across the sound; it's intriguing to imagine the tiny community on that desolate island, abandoned only in relatively recent times. The imagery of place and times conveyed by Tomas O Criomhthain is wonderous enough, but the language is what makes the book so marvelous. It has a luminosity and lyricism -- through Flower's superb translation from the Irish -- that is spe...more I read "The Islandman" years ago when living in Ireland after visiting Slea Head on the Dingle peninsula and seeing the Blaskets across the sound; it's intriguing to imagine the tiny community on that desolate island, abandoned only in relatively recent times. The imagery of place and times conveyed by Tomas O Criomhthain is wonderous enough, but the language is what makes the book so marvelous. It has a luminosity and lyricism -- through Flower's superb translation from the Irish -- that is spellbinding. It must mirror the Irish for it has a rhythm and meter that is quite unlike English. The book conveys such close sense of the people and their lives in this remote place. "Island Cross-Talk", "Twenty Years a-Growing" and "Peig" should be read also as they likewise convey the rich texture of the Blaskets.

Kanigel's book gives the story behind the genesis of this literature. He tells of the scholars (from Ireland, England, France and Norway) who spent time on the island, learning the (very difficult) language and absorbing the culture and ways of the islanders. The emerging commitment across Ireland in the early 20th century to preserve the language brought this attention to the Blaskets where perhaps the purest form of Irish was still in use, not yet overrun by English. What the scholars achieved through their relationships with O Criomhthain, O'Sullivan and Sayers was to encourage and facilitate the transition of the island's oral expression to written form. This was done through developing close relationships and deep friendships with the islanders that carried on for decades. You get the impression that this was much more than intellectual, scholarly work for these linguists; there was a loving regard for the people and deeply sincere respect for the island ways.

Kanigel follows the lives of the islanders and scholars on and off the island and this gives satisfying insights into the worlds of both.

If you haven't already read the Blasket literature, you will want to do so, preferably (at least one of the books) before Kanigel's book.(less)

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May 21, 2012 Liam O'Shiel rated it 4 of 5 stars

The story of educated English and Irish authors immersing themselves in the isolated, Gaelic-speaking culture of the Blasket Islands circa 1900 - 1930. Occasionally a little hard to follow as the author moves from one writer to another - but always absorbing and well-written. The best account I know of the now-vanished Blasket culture.

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Jan 17, 2013 Carolyn Shank rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a moderately interesting book about life on the idyllic Great Blasket Island, off the coast of Ireland. Set during the early Twentieth Century, the isolated spot was the site of a purer Irish culture before the onset of literacy, technology and emigration, eradicated the 18th century based customs, values, and communality.
The book is somewhat academic for most tastes, unless one is a student of Irish literature or of Irish history. Much of it concerns the incredible literary output of...more This is a moderately interesting book about life on the idyllic Great Blasket Island, off the coast of Ireland. Set during the early Twentieth Century, the isolated spot was the site of a purer Irish culture before the onset of literacy, technology and emigration, eradicated the 18th century based customs, values, and communality.
The book is somewhat academic for most tastes, unless one is a student of Irish literature or of Irish history. Much of it concerns the incredible literary output of the Island, once it had been visited by Irish language specialists. The linguists were spurred by the Irish independence movement and by the recognition that the Anglicizing of Ireland was resulting in the erosion of the Irish language (Gaelic), as well as of the soul of its people, who were rooted in the folkways and traditions of the language. At the end of the nineteenth century, the Great Blasket was still an oral society and language was still in an uncontaminated state.
The islanders were a remnant of a group which had gone there in the 18th century. They were the families of fishermen, hardy, happy, and eloquent in their use of language. Their lives were totally without modern conveniences. They lived in cottages of stone, with earthen floors and thatched roofs, heated by turf (peat) fires, which they dug from the earth. The animals: sheep, cows, chickens, donkeys, lived inside when the weather necessitated. Their evenings were filled with singing, dancing, and telling of tales before the great fireplace. The two musical instruments the pipes, and the melodeon, were known to almost every island youngster. Their lives were arduous, but harmonious. It was much more communal in nature than is seen in the modern world.
The island was "discovered" by noted Irish playwright, J. M. Synge, who was the first of several well-known literary figures who became enamored by its stark primeval beauty, as well as by the friendliness and warmth of its people. These included George Thomson, a British classicist; Carl Marstrander, a Norwegian linguist, Marie-Louise Sjoestedt, a scholar of Celtic studies from the Sorbonne, and Robin Flower, of the British Museum. Most of these came first to study the language, but returned again and again, and made lasting relationships with the islanders.
The introduction of literacy brought a flowering of the written word with the production of several books which helped form the foundation for Irish literary studies. The last of the islanders were moved to the mainland in the early 1940's, bringing to a close the last, best, center for the study of rural Irish culture.

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Nov 21, 2012 Shonna Froebel rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book looks at the legacy of the Blaskets, islands in the north west of Ireland. As the Irish language was vanishing throughout Ireland, these islands drew scholars and writers to them. A pocket where Irish was still the language spoken daily, this area drew a variety of visitors that elevated the islands both nationally and internationally. From J.M. Synge, the playwright to Carl Marstrander, a Norwegian linguist, the area drew both writers and scholars of the Irish language.
Some of these v...more

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Jul 31, 2012 Tammy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-libraries, history, non-fiction

This work is a unique combination of telling the story of a way of life that is gone, a language and word origin study, how writers are affected by location and people and the shared love and admiration for a particular set of islands, the Blaskets.

This story is set mainly of the Great Blasket, an island off the west coast of Ireland, known during the early twentieth century for the communal life of its residents and the unadulterated Irish they spoke. With the Irish language vanishing all throu...more

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May 13, 2012 Barbara rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: irish-books, 2012-reads, non-fiction, around-the-world

This was an amazing book. Kanigel has woven the history of the rise of 20th century writing in Irish, and the Great Blasket Island. I discovered that there were a number of outsiders aside from Robin Flowers, whose name I knew, who helped launch the literary movement on the island. A number of islanders wrote works in the Irish language starting with The Islandman Tomas O'Crohan. I didn't know that Irish speakers at the turn of the 20th century were not literate in Irish, though this makes sense...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Carmen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-biography

A story about the Blaskett Islands in Ireland, this story combines the myths with the realities. Characters I have read in other stories, such as Peig, come back in this one. Brings wonderful memories of the vacation I spent in that part of Ireland. Just the right blend of the sadness of the poverty and the happiness about the richness of the culture.

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Jul 30, 2012 Caroline rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: original-northwood-book-club

At first was painful getting thru this bk but once I got used to the difficult Celtic words, it got better as the story progressed. This bk was one of those that you appreciated more once you started discussing it in a group. There was a lot of discussion, the mtg lasted about 3 hrs. Definitely was evocative & struck everyone in different ways. Anyone who's ever pondered escaping to a simpler faraway place will find this bk interesting. I made Irish soda bread which was a little on the hard...more

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Apr 26, 2012 Abbey rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, nf-and-or-reference

BOTTOM LINE: Lovely history of a once-inhabited island off the west coast of Ireland that is now empty, but had been home to a small village for centuries. Tells the story of various anthropological and social history types that came to visit and study the inhabitants starting in 1905. Not as clinical as that sentence makes it seem, this is actually a bit of a love poem to the lifestyle and the people, written by one of the last outsiders to "come visit".

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Apr 03, 2013 jane added it

I enjoyed the book and discovered where the Island of Blakesley is near Ireland. An island which brought in Irish writers and academics. Looking in a guide book it looks lovely but untamed.

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Jun 01, 2012 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: irish-authors

This was a fact filled book about an island.(Blasket) The book is dry and not a good read. If you want to learn about the Irish language and in the purest form this is a good book. Not for fun reading.

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Jul 13, 2012 Zzee rated it 4 of 5 stars

Beautiful, a real surprise.some of the poetry is exquiste. My fav.Robin Flower early 1900s.i love this book !

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Shelves: iml

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Shelves: history-anthropology

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Shelves: 21st-century, own, nonfiction, k, ireland, travel

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