Inishturk - the hidden gem in Clew Bay

By Tom Gillespie

FORTY years ago this week (June 1992) I discovered the island of Inishturk - or, that should be, rediscovered it.

Some years earlier I had landed on the island on two occasions while on day fishing trips from Ainsworth’s pub on Spencer Street, Castlebar - later John and Ann Moran’s.

On those occasions the fishing crew just availed of the facilities in the shoreline shebeen. And while we did swim in the harbour we did not take in the beauty and remoteness of Turk.

It took the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) to get me to appreciate the island, which lies nine miles off the Mayo coast.

The teachers' union called a press conference on the island for Tuesday, June 23, 1992.

Together with my former colleague at The Connaught Telegraph, Tom Shiel, who was then news editor with Midwest Radio, we sailed in the Very Lightly Clare Island based boat from Roonagh Pier to attend the press conference.

It was called to highlight in general the plight of one-teacher schools and the island’s St. Columba’s National School, which is 137 years old this year, and was in 1992 described by the INTO as the most peripheral classroom in Europe.

I filed my story to the Connaught from the phone box outside Tess’s post office.

I wrote that the one-roomed school was erected initially to cater for 12 students.

At the time of our visit there were 23 pupils on the rolls and 16 of them were named O’Toole.

I reprint portion of that article: On Inishturk yesterday, as journalists arrived for the briefing, five-year-old Patrick O’Toole enrolled as the youngest student in the island’s little school. His brother Stephen, at 13, is the most senior pupil.

Ann Marie McCormack, then the school principal, said: "Our biggest problem is the lack of accessibility to services on the mainland."

The school is without a phone and in the case of an accident she has to send the children home while taking the injured pupil for treatment.

There were also difficulties in getting a replacement teacher in the event of illness. Most are reluctant to take up the post as substitute as they have to bear the cost of transportation by boat to and from the island.

Ann Marie, a native of Castlebar, who had been teaching on Inishturk for four years, added: "While the school itself is in good repair we are very overcrowded with 23 pupils divided into eight classes in the one room."

I was so enthralled by the uniqueness of Turk that before departing the following morning I had enquired with Mary Catherine Heanue if I could take the family to Turk for two weeks in August.

She did not have availability but sent me to Bernard Heaney in whose house we stayed that August.

For the following year we stayed in Mary Catherine’s cottage and later in her Ocean View B&B.

In the intervening years we have been to the island every year but two - 2015 and because of Covid in 2020.

Over those 40 years I have reported on the slow but positive development of the island.

Sadly, the population is declining and pupil numbers at St. Columba’s has dropped to three - two girls and one boy.

On my INTO visit, because of low water, we had to transfer from the Very Lightly to a curragh to be taken ashore.

The pier was virtually non-existent then but today the regular Clare Island ferries from Roonagh can tie up in safety at the large pier.

Over the years we have attended Inishturk weddings, house stations and funerals.

The graveyard is located opposite the school but down a steep hill, to which access has been improved over the years.

One of the highlights for the Inishturk population was when President Mary Robinson helicoptered in on May 23, 1993, to officially open the island's community club. And I was present again 25 years later when they celebrated the opening of a huge extension to the facility.

Over the years the island community has earned its fair share of newspaper headlines, both local and national.

One that springs to mind was the 2000 Millennium story I wrote for the Irish daily and red top newspapers when the male inhabitants of Turk donned aprons on New Year's Eve to pamper their women folk.

The men laid on a gastronomic candle-light, three course banquet - vegetable soup, succulent loin of stuffed pork, followed by apple tart and cream - and all the ingredients were locally produced.

At the time the then island manager, Dave Fitzgibbon, told me it was the first time ever that all of the island’s population of 93 sat down in the one place to eat together.

He said: "It all came about when several of the men undertook a BIM adult cookery course during the 1999 winter.

"They were dying to show off their newly found culinary skills and had wondered how best they could do it."

Following the first Covid lockdown in 2020 the local community declared the island a ‘no-go’ area for tourists as part of their effort to keep the epidemic on the mainland.

Their efforts paid off and last year (2021) staycationers, including myself, flocked in their droves to Inishturk to take in the looped walk and the pristine beaches.

Community club manager Breege Heanue said it was one of the busiest seasons ever on the island and the Caher View Restaurant was packed daily where visitors enjoyed their locally caught fish and crab claws.

On the day I travelled there it coincided with a sheep show and there were up to 80 passengers on the ferry to attend it and others to explore the island.

Any of our readers who have not experienced the uniqueness of Inishturk should do so this season.

O’Malley Ferries operate all-year round between Inishturk and Roonagh pier. See www.omalleyferries.com for up-to-date information on sailings or call (086) 8870814 or (086) 6000204.