OGUIHEEN:PITY YOUTH DOES NOT LAST PAPER COVERS: Reminiscences of the Last of the Great Blasket Island's Poets and Storytellers

by Micheál O'Guiheen, Tim Enright (Translator)

Micheal O'Guiheen was the son of Peig Sayers, "the Queen of the Gaelic storytellers." The last of the Blasket's celebrated poets and storytellers, he describes how the isolation of his youth was slowly eroded by the creeping of civilization across the three miles separating the islands from County Kerry, and the sadness of leaving the Great Blasket for the last time."

Genres: History, Memoir, Ireland

163 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1981

Reviews

[Fionnuala]

The long years have vanished and all I can see today are the old ruined houses where people used to live. I remember strong and brave men and women to be living in the houses that are, my sorrow, ruined now. Twelve houses have gone to rack, to my memory, that were at their height in my young days. Cliff grass and nettles are growing round them today.
Would it be any wonder for me to be sad, reader, that saw sport and company in those houses? All the same, I don't fault this lonesome spot, for I don't believe there is a corner in Ireland more beautiful. The sea and the rocks and the dark ravines and the mountains of Ireland are out there in front of me, with no mist over them. They are a fine sight on a day of sunshine. But they are finer again, when the winter's storm is there. The wind lifts the grey mist from their foreheads...

Micheál O'Guiheen, son of Péig Sayers.

[trin · Rating 3 out of 5]

the clattering of feet on the floor won’t be heard, nor the sweet, singing laughter. in their place, wild birds are nesting in ruins that once were sweet to my heart.

[Cher · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Blasket Islands are a group of small islands off the west coast of Ireland, only accessible by boat from the small village of Dingle. These islands are famous for having preserved the old way of traditional Irish life the longest, finally losing its battle to retain its island culture in 1953 when the government evacuated the islands, moving its aging citizens to the mainland. The controversial eviction was due to its increasing isolation (it is impossible to gain access to the island from mainland for most of the winter months). Rustic and simple life was too risky and when the younger generations numbers dwindled, opting for life in the big cities or abroad, the government had to shut down the islands.

Years before the actual deportment to the mainland occurred, the islanders gathered together to record their unique cultural history. Told in the Irish oral tradition in the Irish language and then translated into English, the islanders voted on its most prominent families, to pass on the oral history of the Blasket Islands.

Michael O'Guilheen shares his story about growing up on these mysterious, often dangerous islands ending in heartbreak as he spends his golden years exiled from his true home. The pain of age reflecting upon youth, culture fading away, and the act of upheaval from one's home is deep within this text's veins.

[B · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there's anything or anyone that you miss, this book will move you. There was something cathartic for me about taking in the Poet's uncensored grief - for his childhood, the people he knew who died or emigrated, and the way of life on the Blasket Islands that was being lost for good at the time when he wrote this.
No one lives on the Island anymore. My parents spent a night there in 2003 and the boat man thought they were crazy. My dad died in 2011, and I've been told the same story over and over about the wind blowing my mum's sleeping mat away (this should give you an idea of what the weather was and is like there) and him climbing down the cliff to get it, coming back up with it in his teeth.
I picked this book up because I've been feeling nostalgic, and it didn't disappoint. I wasn't sure whether to give it four or five stars. The only thing I can criticise it for is not reading like a novel (i.e. not flowing structurally) but it isn't a novel. It's a handful of recollections, and if you read it expecting that, the very short chapters and loose chronology will make sense.

[John Kane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fondness and regret captured beautifully, at the same time.