Courtney McGrailIn 1969, the poet Richard Murphy purchased High Island, now called Ardoileán, a small island rich with early Christian remains in the vicinity of Inishbofin off Galway, a place with which he had been associated since 1954.
“I got excited at the thought of buying this inaccessible holy island, restoring the beehive cells and oratory of its derelict hermitage and preserving the place from destruction either by tourists or by sheep,” relater recalled in his memoirs.
As a poet Richard Murphy was fully conscious from his own background of the mingled strands of Irish history, old Irish, planters, colonial service and rural life. He came of a Mayo Anglo-Irish family, but had spent his childhood in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and in the Bahamas, where his father was Governor-General.
One of his earliest works, The Battle of Aughrim (1968), is a long poem, a meditation on the conflicts and violence from which the modern nation emerged.
An artist of unsettled nature, now in his late eighties, he presently lives again in Sri Lanka. But he has gifted High Island to the nation, a gift made in return for all the advantages he gained as poet under the 1969 Finance Act, which abolished tax on artists’ earnings, and from his membership of Aosdána, which he received through the Arts Council.
Background
One of the released files deals with the background to the generous and appropriate act. This was done at the end of November 1985, and the island was vested (by government warrant) in the Commissioners of Public Works. One detects behind the austere formality of the papers the Government’s delight at such a gift.
The island consisted of some 33 hectares off the north-west coast of Galway. Richard Murphy had offered it to “the people of Ireland to be kept unpolluted and free from exploitation”. The island was already an area of scientific interest under the National Heritage Inventory because of its importance as place where wild birds bred, including the Peregrine Falcon. There are also Barnacle Geese and grey seals.
However, the most interesting aspect of the island was the early Christian ruins. The hermitage, which survived on the south end of the island beside a small lake, had been founded by St Fechin, a saint associated with Galway who died in about 664.
Aside from the hermitage, there a number of penitential stations dotted round the island, two with decorated cross-slabs. It would be incorporated into the Connemara National Park. From the Office of Public Work’s (OPW) point of view it would be easy to care for as no permanent full time staff would be required.
The island’s importance had been recognised by archaeologists since the 19th Century. It is now thought that it may well have been settled in late prehistoric times, about 300BC. Its importance to the poet himself was realised in his collection of poem High Island (1974):
An older calm,
The kiss of rock and grass,
Pink thrift and white
sea-campion,
Flowers in the dead place.
… and another poet’s landscape
The centenary of the birth of Patrick Pearse had been celebrated back in 1979, an anniversary which gave the Government an opportunity to emphasise the poet and the teacher that Pearse was, aspects often overlooked by admirers of his revolutionary creed.
Aside from the Connemara National Park, the Office of Public Works (OPW) also preserved Pearse’s Cottage, near Inbhear, near Rosmuc Village, Co. Galway. This stands on an unspoilt naturally beautiful spot overlooking the scenic Lough Aroolagh.
One of his pupils, who visited there, later recalled the days spent cycling through the region: “The Twelve Pins came in sight and Pearse waved his hand here and there over the land, naming lake, mountain and district away to the Joyce Country under its purple mist.”
One of the released files reveals that a local farmer had offered the State some 13 acres of land, lying along the lake, and according to a minute, “must be regarded as an important part of the monument’s environment and worthy of preservation”.
Acceptance would help to preserve the majestic view from the cottage over the landscape that the poet loved so much, the bare grey mountains and the brown-green of the heather land.
The OPW thought that accepting the land at that time would enable them later to acquire even more, and so protect even more of what was a delicate environment. However, in the papers they advised the Government that it would be best to fence in the land at once. This would mean an immediate outlay of £5,000.
Generous gift
Experience had shown the OPW that when people realised that a stretch of local land anywhere belonged to the State – or in the view of some to “the people” – they would use it as a dump, steal the turf, or carry away the top soil. So the first thing to be done with this generous gift to the nation was to protect it from the nation.
This was a wise move. Richard Murphy’s island was largely inaccessible, being miles out in the Atlantic Ocean. But Pearse’s cottage is easily reached from Maam Cross, on the busy Galway to Clifden road, which carries so much tourist traffic. Though threatened by development, Pearse’s cottage still remains a place of haunted beauty, a place where for a time he could be truly happy.