The Western Island, or the Great Blasket

by Robin Flower, Ida M. Flower (Illustrator)

The Western Island tells the history of the Great Blasket, of the frugality and adversities of life on the island, its folktales (including stories of ghosts and fairies), and also recounts the dramatic day in the Great Blasket's history when the flying galleons of the Spanish Aramada were
destroyed on its coast.

Genres: Ireland, Irish Literature

154 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1944

About the author

Robin Ernest William Flower was an English poet and scholar, a Celticist, Anglo-Saxonist and translator from the Irish language. He is commonly known in Ireland as "Bláithín" (Little Flower).

Reviews

[Hugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those hidden books you discover that no one else knows about. A sometimes melancholy nostalgia of a time that we can never return to because the people have passed on and the place is no more. This is a multi-level frame narrative of an author writing in the 1940s about his journeys to Great Blasket Island (off coast of Dingle Bay), collecting stories recollected by the last old storytellers remaining there about people and a way of life that was nearly gone in their own time and definitely gone in ours. Vibes of a lost past similar to The Name of the Rose, The Lord of the Rings, Grand Budapest Hotel and Fishin’ Jimmy. Now I just need to go listen to the theme song to the 1970s tv show “Grizzly Adams” and have a good cry.

[eliza · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Tomas" is one of my all time favorite poems.

[Tim O'Sullivan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The poems that were seamlessly embroidered into the fabrics of the text are perfect. Have memorized many of them and recite them to meself at most unexpected times. The prose writing of that most beautiful of books, is bejeweled with astonishing metaphor and perfect storytelling. It has been my life long companion.

[Kathi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to read this because of its historical significance. It was not all that captivating but it did give a taste of the people and life on the Great Blasket Island. I hope to go there sometime.

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather beautiful book about one of the most western outposts of Europe, now deserted. It describes a way of life now disappeared, but also gives the hints to the remoteness and inaccessibility of the island that made it's disappearance inevitable.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this to be a highly romanticized idea of peasant life.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ronan and I finished this one in about a week during our nursing time. Ronans excited to visit the Blaskets someday!

[John Kane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly well written and poignant.