The Western Island
“Standing there, as the sea-mists-crept over the island and shut out the visible world, I have at times lost consciousness of this present earth and felt the illusion of other presences in the wreathing swirls of cloud.”
- 80th Anniversary Edition with a new introduction by Mícheál de Mórdha.
This 80th anniversary edition features a specially commissioned original painting by Dingle-based artist Áine Ní Chíobháin.
The Western Island is Robin Flower’s intimate and lyrical portrait of life on the Great Blasket Island, the outermost inhabited point of Europe. Flower writes of the frugality and resilience of island life, of storytellers and poets, of ghost lore and fairy tale, of a people who, in his words, spoke great literature long before it was ever written down. Part memoir, part elegy, part ethnological document, The Western Island remains one of the most beloved books in the rich tradition of Blasket Island writing.
Cover design and typography by Fiachra McCarthy
Mícheál de Mórdha is a native of Dún Chaoin, Co Kerry and served as Manager of the Great Blasket Centre from 1993 and as a producer and presenter with RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta and as a one-time President of Oireachtas na Gaeilge.
