The Islandman Quotes

“...the fact is, for one day that went well with me, five would go wrong with me...”
― Tomas O'Crohan, The Islandman

“I have written minutely of much that we did, for it was my wish that somewhere there should be a memorial of it all, and I have done my best to set down the character of the people about me so that some record of us might live after us, for the like of us will never be again.”
― Tomás Ó Criomhthain, The Islandman

“Living too long is worst of all No one cares or comes to call.”
― Tomas O'Crohan, The Islander. Complete and Unabridged A translation of An tOileánach: An account of life on the Great Blasket Island off the west coast of Kerry

“marriage gives a man a zest for life. As they say, my life had been sheer paradise before that.”
― Tomas O'Crohan, The Islander. Complete and Unabridged A translation of An tOileánach: An account of life on the Great Blasket Island off the west coast of Kerry

“Everyone was half banjaxed”
― Tomas O'Crohan, The Islander. Complete and Unabridged A translation of An tOileánach: An account of life on the Great Blasket Island off the west coast of Kerry

“This is how a person’s life ebbs away bit by bit, a good portion of it spent in useless pursuits.”
― Tomas O'Crohan, The Islander. Complete and Unabridged A translation of An tOileánach: An account of life on the Great Blasket Island off the west coast of Kerry

“It wasn't thirst for the drink that made us want to go where it was, but only the need to have a merry night instead of the misery that we knew only too well before. What the drop of drink did to us was to lift up the hearts in us, and we would spend a day and a night ever and again in company together when we got the chance.”
― Tomas O'Crohan, The Islandman

“I remember being at my mother’s breast.”
― Tomas O'Crohan, The Islander. Complete and Unabridged A translation of An tOileánach: An account of life on the Great Blasket Island off the west coast of Kerry

“the memory of an evil deed is long, and never dies.”
― Tomas O'Crohan, The Islander. Complete and Unabridged A translation of An tOileánach: An account of life on the Great Blasket Island off the west coast of Kerry

“God’s help is closer than the door,”
― Tomas O'Crohan, The Islander. Complete and Unabridged A translation of An tOileánach: An account of life on the Great Blasket Island off the west coast of Kerry

“I took the flat of my hand and gave him a smack in his earhole.”
― Tomas O'Crohan, The Islander. Complete and Unabridged A translation of An tOileánach: An account of life on the Great Blasket Island off the west coast of Kerry

“We were imbued with the sound of the wind that blew in from the seashore, beating in our ears every morning, clearing our brains and rinsing the dust from our skulls.”
― Tomas O'Crohan, The Islander. Complete and Unabridged A translation of An tOileánach: An account of life on the Great Blasket Island off the west coast of Kerry

“I remember being a boy; I remember being a young man; I remember the bloom of my vigour and my strength. I have known famine and plenty, fortune and ill-fortune, in my life-days till to-day. They are great teachers for one the marks them well.”
― Tomas O'Crohan, The Islandman

“...I have done my best to set down the character of the people about me so that some record of us might live after us, for the like of us will never be again.”
― Tomas O'Crohan, The Islandman