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The Island of Ghosts
When Dara and Brendan go missing after a sailing trip their sisters Barbara and Cait set out to find them. But once they reach the Island of Ghosts they too become captives of Mr Webb.
151 pages, Library Binding
First published January 1, 1989
About the author
Eilís Dillon
59 books39 followersEilís Dillon (1920-1994) was born in Galway, in the West of Ireland. Her father, Thomas Dillon, was Professor of Chemistry at University College Galway. Her mother, Geraldine Plunkett, was the sister of the poet Joseph Mary Plunkett, one of the seven signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, who was executed in Kilmainham Gaol at the end of the 1916 Easter Rising.
Eilís was educated at the Ursuline Convent in Sligo, and was sent to work in the hotel and catering business in Dublin. In 1940, at the age of 20, she married a 37-year-old Corkman. Her husband, Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, became Professor of Irish at University College Cork. Eilís had always written poetry and stories, and in the intervals of bringing up three children and running a student hostel for the university, she developed her writing into a highly successful professional career. At first she wrote children's books in Irish and English, then started to write novels and detective stories. Over twenty of her books were published by Faber and Faber, winning critical acclaim and a wide readership. Her work was translated into fourteen languages.
In the 1960s, her husband's poor health prompted early retirement and a move to Rome. He died in 1970. Eilís Dillon's large historical novel about the road to Irish independence in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Across the Bitter Sea, was published in 1973 by Hodder & Stoughton in London, and Simon & Schuster in New York. It became an instant bestseller.
In 1974 Eilís married Vivian Mercier, Professor of English in the University of Colorado at Boulder. They moved to California when Vivian was appointed to a chair in the University of California, Santa Barbara. They spent each winter in California until Vivian's retirement in 1987, returning to Ireland for the spring and summer.
Eilís Dillon was active in a number of public and cultural bodies. She served on the Arts Council, the International Commission for English in the Liturgy, the Irish Writers' Union and the Irish Writers' Centre. She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and a member of Aosdána, the State academy of writers, artists and composers. She had long argued for the establishment of such a body.
Vivian's death in 1989 was followed by the death in 1990 of Eilís's daughter Máire, who was a violinist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Despite these blows, and her own declining health, Eilís kept writing until the last months of her own life. An honorary doctorate was conferred on her by University College Cork in 1992. Her last two published works were Children of Bach (1993), a children's novel set in Hungary at the time of the Holocaust, and her edition of Vivian Mercier's posthumous Modern Irish Literature: Sources and Founders (Oxford, 1994). Her scholarly work on this book meant that her own last novel remained unfinished.
Eilís Dillon died on 19 July 1994. Of her fifty books, ten are now in print and others will shortly be republished. A special prize, the Eilís Dillon Award, is given each year as part of the Bisto Book Awards. She herself had won the main Bisto Book of the Year award in 1989 with The Island of Ghosts.
Eilís was educated at the Ursuline Convent in Sligo, and was sent to work in the hotel and catering business in Dublin. In 1940, at the age of 20, she married a 37-year-old Corkman. Her husband, Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, became Professor of Irish at University College Cork. Eilís had always written poetry and stories, and in the intervals of bringing up three children and running a student hostel for the university, she developed her writing into a highly successful professional career. At first she wrote children's books in Irish and English, then started to write novels and detective stories. Over twenty of her books were published by Faber and Faber, winning critical acclaim and a wide readership. Her work was translated into fourteen languages.
In the 1960s, her husband's poor health prompted early retirement and a move to Rome. He died in 1970. Eilís Dillon's large historical novel about the road to Irish independence in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Across the Bitter Sea, was published in 1973 by Hodder & Stoughton in London, and Simon & Schuster in New York. It became an instant bestseller.
In 1974 Eilís married Vivian Mercier, Professor of English in the University of Colorado at Boulder. They moved to California when Vivian was appointed to a chair in the University of California, Santa Barbara. They spent each winter in California until Vivian's retirement in 1987, returning to Ireland for the spring and summer.
Eilís Dillon was active in a number of public and cultural bodies. She served on the Arts Council, the International Commission for English in the Liturgy, the Irish Writers' Union and the Irish Writers' Centre. She was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and a member of Aosdána, the State academy of writers, artists and composers. She had long argued for the establishment of such a body.
Vivian's death in 1989 was followed by the death in 1990 of Eilís's daughter Máire, who was a violinist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Despite these blows, and her own declining health, Eilís kept writing until the last months of her own life. An honorary doctorate was conferred on her by University College Cork in 1992. Her last two published works were Children of Bach (1993), a children's novel set in Hungary at the time of the Holocaust, and her edition of Vivian Mercier's posthumous Modern Irish Literature: Sources and Founders (Oxford, 1994). Her scholarly work on this book meant that her own last novel remained unfinished.
Eilís Dillon died on 19 July 1994. Of her fifty books, ten are now in print and others will shortly be republished. A special prize, the Eilís Dillon Award, is given each year as part of the Bisto Book Awards. She herself had won the main Bisto Book of the Year award in 1989 with The Island of Ghosts.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 15, 2020
Best friends Dara and Brendan, growing up together on a small island off the west coast of Ireland, confront the fact that they are soon to leave their home in order to attend high school on the mainland in this poignant children's novel from Eilís Dillon. When the boys discover that Mr. Webb, a retired schoolteacher living in their island fishing community, plans to make his home in isolation, on the nearby uninhabited "Island of Ghosts," they help him with his preparations. Little do they realize however, that when they agree to sail with him to the island, in order to help him set up, that they will not see their home for quite some while. Kidnapped by Mr. Webb, who wants them to live on the island, the boys are believed drowned by the people of their own island. Only the boys' sisters, Barbara and Cait, believe that they are still alive, setting out to rescue them...
One of the most celebrated Irish children's authors of the twentieth century, Eilís Dillon wrote fifty books over the course of her career, in both the Irish and English languages. The Island of Ghosts was first published in 1989, four years before Dillon's death. It is an engrossing adventure story, one which explores the idea of the past as something that haunts us in the present. This manifests itself, not just in the actual spirit that the children experience, on the eponymous 'island of ghosts,' but also in the overarching story, and in Mr. Webb's maniacal quest to repopulate one of the abandoned western islands. The theme of the abandonment of the western islands of Ireland and Scotland, over the course of the twentieth century, in one that has been explored in many books, whether for children or adults. Dillon manages to capture both the romantic appeal of the the western islands, as an idea, and the human tragedy of the loss of the communities that once lived on them. In this way, the name "island of ghosts" refers not just to the actual spirit, but to the ghosts of the past - the ghosts of the people who once lived there. This doesn't appear to be one of Dillon's more popular works, but I found it very powerful, and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys thoughtful upper-level middle-grade fiction.
One of the most celebrated Irish children's authors of the twentieth century, Eilís Dillon wrote fifty books over the course of her career, in both the Irish and English languages. The Island of Ghosts was first published in 1989, four years before Dillon's death. It is an engrossing adventure story, one which explores the idea of the past as something that haunts us in the present. This manifests itself, not just in the actual spirit that the children experience, on the eponymous 'island of ghosts,' but also in the overarching story, and in Mr. Webb's maniacal quest to repopulate one of the abandoned western islands. The theme of the abandonment of the western islands of Ireland and Scotland, over the course of the twentieth century, in one that has been explored in many books, whether for children or adults. Dillon manages to capture both the romantic appeal of the the western islands, as an idea, and the human tragedy of the loss of the communities that once lived on them. In this way, the name "island of ghosts" refers not just to the actual spirit, but to the ghosts of the past - the ghosts of the people who once lived there. This doesn't appear to be one of Dillon's more popular works, but I found it very powerful, and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys thoughtful upper-level middle-grade fiction.
March 31, 2019
Brendan, Barbara, Bran, Bardal, Bartley... and very few ghosts. One, actually.
March 2, 2026
So weird
September 11, 2018
I loved reading about life on an island community so small you need to sail over to Inishmore in order to catch the steamer to Galway. I did not love that Mr. Webb did not so much as get arrested at the end. HE KIDNAPPED TWO CHILDREN, KEPT THEM AS SLAVES FOR HALF A YEAR, AND BROKE ONE OF THEIR LEGS. SORRY FOR SPOILERS, I DON'T KNOW HOW TO HIDE THEM.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 5, 2026
entertaining as hell, what are these people on????
March 9, 2026
So nobody is going to address the kidnapping that took place ??? Where’s an amber alert when you need it
January 12, 2009
I am reading it still so I will finish it later.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews