The islands that surround the coast of Ireland hold stories, characteristics and breathtaking rock forms, crashing waves and bird life. At the beginning of the twentieth century, more than one hundred Irish islands were still inhabited. Today, barely thirty have year-round populations.

Aran is in the middle of Galway bay, 30 kilometres to the north of Co. Clare and 30 kilometres to the south of Connemara. It is very popular with tourists from all over the world who travel to it all year round. On it lie the ruins of a fortress, named Dun Aengus. There is not much left of the fortress, but the remaining wall is a good windbreaker while you admire the magnificent cliffs below. Aran has two other islands alongside it, Inishmaan and Inishsheer. Each island is made of limestone. Inishmaan is still inhabited as is Aran.

The island of Owey in Donegal is 1 kilometre from the shore. It's called sheep island, because farmers keep them there in order to lay claim to the island. It was left vacant in 1977 when the last of its inhabitants left.

Aranmore is another island off Donegal. It is five kilometres long and four kilometres wide, and lies four kilometres from the mainland. In 1834 it had a population of 1,141 people. Famine then destroyed a large part of the population.

Because of some families leaving for an island in Lake Michigan due to land rates on Aranmore both islands are now linked across a great distance. It still has inhabitants to this day.

Clare island, just off the coast of Clare, next to its neighbour Inishbofin is still also inhabited. It has bed and breakfasts if you feel like a break and here the weather is reported as great.

Inishturk, translated means the island of the Hog, with a population of eighty people. It's famous for fishing and there is always plenty of it going on. It too has a few bed and breakfasts. This island smacks of prosperity.

Friar island, beside Inishshark is a beautiful and wild island, once home to a hermit and, as with other islands off Ireland, is home to dolphins and seals. Inishshark itself has a macabre past, with sons of fishermen drowning off it and men dying of illness on it. Due to violent storms the islanders decided to leave for houses on the mainland in the 1960s. It is now deserted.

Caher island is supposedly the burial place of Saint Patrick and you can see why. There are ruins of ancient churches, burial stones and stone crosses and Croagh Patrick can be seen in the distance. This island is situated in Clew Bay and is uninhabited except for pilgrimages. Its history dates back to 441.

The Great Blaskets are off Dingle in Co. Kerry, with Inishbro and Inishvichillane owned in recent times by Charles Haughey. The Blaskets themselves are famous for their writers , the great Peig Sayers being one of them.

In 1953 the Great Blasket was abandoned by its inhabitants and now only 3 people live there, a weaver, a German women and her friend. These two run a youth hostel, so it’s there if you feel like holidaying on the western-most point of Europe. An American, believe it or not, owns one third of the island.

The Skelligs are granite islands off Co. Kerry with a monastery from the sixth century. The Vikings attacked this monastery several times and killed the monks by leaving them on rocks to starve to death.

The famous 670 steps from monastery to sea are still there, which the monks descended each day to fish. It was abandoned in the thirteenth century and is today one of the most famous places in Europe for pilgrimages. It is also home to the largest colony of gannets in Ireland and there is an ornithologist there all summer as a guide for tourists.

Dursey island off Co. Cork, with its cable car joining it to the mainland, is a neighbour to Bere island. The cable car hangs 85 feet above the sea, holds six people and takes 6 minutes to cross. The weather is good due to the Gulf Stream. It is 6.5 kilometres long and 1.5 kilometres wide.

This island is a relative paradise today, but it is where the Vikings kept the Irish as slaves and it’s also where the forces of Elizabeth I pushed the Irishwomen, children and men off its highest cliffs into the Atlantic. The island has only seven inhabitants today.

On Bere island in 1796 a battle between Wolfe Tone, a fleet from Napolean Bonaparte and an English fleet took place. The Irish and French lost, with the result that the British garrisoned the island until 1938.

The port of Castletownbere which was built as a military stronghold by the British after this battle also served as a watch over this part of the Atlantic and was a port for American shipping during the First World War. This island now holds a steady population and the Irish Army train there.

Ref: The Islands of Ireland, by Nutan a renowned photojouralist, published by Thames and Hudson (ISBN 0-500-51258-2)

The picture above shows the Beacon outside Baltimore in West Cork overlooking historic Sherkin Island, which is inhabited.