The Loneliest Boy in the World: The Last Child on the Great Blasket Island

Although they might not be used as much in daily life these days, proverbs and old sayings translated from the original Irish were in frequent use when I was growing up, including this one:

“Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine.” (Translation: Under the shelter of each other, people survive.)

The saying praises the value of a sense of community, which was exemplified beautifully in the lives of the people who lived on an island off the Irish coast until November 1953, when the last remaining 22 residents were evacuated at the order of the Irish government. Several personal accounts of life on the Great Blasket island have been published and offer an important insight into a distinctive maritime lifestyle. Over the years I’ve been intrigued and entertained by many of them, including the story of a young boy who, according to a newspaper article of the time, had only seagulls for playmates. It was wonderful to make a visit to this special place over the past summer, and to marvel on the strength and solidarity of that community in the midst of such breathtaking beauty yet challenging isolation.

Gearóid Ó Catháin and his pet donkey in Dunquin in the 1950s. Photograph by Donal MacMonagle/macmonagle.com

Described as “The Loneliest Boy In The World” by journalist Liam Robinson in that 1949 newspaper article, Gearóid Cheaist Ó Catháin certainly had a unique childhood. He was the last child to be brought up on the Blasket Islands;. to provide further context, the nearest in age was his uncle who was thirty years older. It’s easy to imagine, then, the impact he made on Robinson and the photographer who accompanied him (Donal MacMonagle) during their visit to the Great Blasket just before Christmas in 1948. Because their article was picked up not only by the Irish newspapers but also by international news sources, Robinson and MacMonagle were responsible for Gearóid’s family becoming somewhat famous at the time;

“An avalanche of post flooded in from all over the globe. Seán Filli, our postman, had a path worn to our door.’’

 Although Gearóid was only a year old in 1949, the letters and toys flowed in for years after the newspaper story. We know this because he mentions the situation in his memoir, written in 2014 and titled “The Loneliest Boy In The World; The Last Child of the Great Blasket Island.” By the time the above photo was taken in the 1950’s the Ó Catháin family had been relocated to the Irish mainland.

A renovated cottage stands amid a deserted village, Great Blasket Island

In his book, Gearóid paints a picture of life within a small, vulnerable fishing community that existed without the benefits of electricity, school or an on-site doctor (although a doctor could be brought to the island via rowboat when weather conditions allowed). The memories shared are overwhelmingly happy in spite of the obvious difficulties and challenges facing that final generation on the Great Blasket; residents endured rigorous  physical labor on a daily basis whether on land or at sea (in fishing boats that would be considered light and exposed by today’s standards). Nonetheless, they congregated at the end of a long day for communal evenings in their native Gaelic Irish language, often passing down stories that had been handed down through generations.

The Great Blasket covers over 1,100 acres of largely mountainous terrain, and is about 4 miles long and half a mile wide. It is a hiker’s paradise, with unmatched views from the westernmost point in Europe when weather is permitting. Today visitors can explore the cottage ruins that still stand in memorial to a world that belongs to another time. The Office of Public Works has bought most of the property on the Great Blasket, including the deserted village, in recent decades.  These days several of the restored cottages are open for summer rentals.

Although many of the demands of daily life on the island as they existed a hundred years ago are not part of the experience (there is running water and gas-powered facilities for cooking) overnight visitors do get to embrace the pleasures of a more mindful, leisurely pace of life without electricity.

To the nature lover, the island brings the largest seal colony in Ireland to your doorstep. Seals come from as far away as Scotland to breed in late summer and early autumn, staying throughout the winter; during the winter months up to one thousand seals can be seen stretched out on the White Strand – An Trá Bán – and in late September and early October all the coves and gravel beaches on Beginish (neighboring “small island”) are full of white furry seal pups and their mothers.

Seals hold a special place in the folk traditions of Ireland. Indeed, as I watched them from my cottage doorway on a glorious August evening, I couldn’t help but wonder whether amongst them were lying seals that were descended from those seen and admired by the young Gearóid on that same beach at the close of the 1940’s. Now 77 years old, he says that he will always be an islander. Is this, perhaps, due to the sense of community he experienced during his earliest years?

You can hear the voice of Gearóid Ó Cathain as he reflects on the evacuation from the Blasket Islands in a sound clip from a 2023 radio interview here.

For Irish language speakers, I also attach a link to a radio feature “An Saol ó Dheas” from Radio na Gaeltachta.

His book has been absorbed into the Irish literary collection as a memoir of transition, from the Gaelic (Irish) language to bilingualism, from the old ways into the modern world and, of course, from the close-knit island community to the broader mainland. Published by Collins Press, The Loneliest Boy in the World (ISBN-13:9781848892071) is available online or via many Irish bookstores. Lest we imagine that his was a melancholy childhood existence, Gearóid Ó Catháin would be the first to disagree, as he affirmed in an Irish Times interview, in which he described his childhood self as being “as happy as Larry.”

And who was Larry, you might ask? Ah……the Irish do love their proverbs and old sayings.

You can learn more about The Great Blasket Island experience here, or via their Instagram (@greatblasketisland).

Where the past and the present stand side by side: The Great Blasket Island