Marvellous glass and steel wall installation called "The Journey," by Róisín de Buitléar, in the lobby of The Great Blasket Centre, inspired by research carried out into the daily lives of the Blasket Islanders.
The Great Blasket Centre (Ireland)
It is a very fine thing for world heritage that something like The Great Blasket Centre exists as a model.
As the brochure says:
With stunning views of the wild Atlantic coast and islands at the halfway point of the Slea Head Drive, The Blasket Centre is a fascinating heritage and cultural centre / museum honouring the unique community who lived on the remote Blasket Islands until their evacuation in 1953.
The Centre details the community’s struggle for existence, their language and culture, folklore and customs, and their extraordinary literary legacy […].
A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video even more, so have a look at “The Last Islandman Returns to his Birthplace, the Great Blasket,” to get a feel for this abandoned place. (It makes me tear up, hearing him describe the parting words of his father, goodness.)
My own photo of Great Blasket Island on a blustery October day could be straight out of that video.
Great Blasket Island from the shore. The waves really roar and crash!A model of the village. (I love models and dioramas, if that’s not obvious already.) I had previously thought there were homes all around the island, but it makes much more sense that the inhabitants lived together in a village.The Centre is an architecturally stunning building, which fits perfectly into the surrounding countryside. A gently descending hall leads to a glass atrium looking out onto Great Blasket Island.The exterior of The Great Blasket Centre in the far west of Ireland’s Dingle Peninsula.
Note to self: see Ryan’s Daughter, which was filmed all around this area in the late 1960s.
