Letters From The Great Blasket

A strange and different way of life emerges as we discover an island loved and feared.

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This selection of letters from the Great Blasket, for the most part written by Eibhlís Ní Shúilleabháin of the island to George Chambers in London, covers a period of over twenty years. Beginning in 1931, when the island was still a place where one might marry and raise a family, the letters end in 1951 with the author herself in exile on the mainland and 'the old folk of the island scattering to their graves'. Through the eyes of Eibhlís, we see not the island of the summer visitor but one intimately known, loved and feared – and finally abandoned.