' Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual watcher in the darkening streets... I saw him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without'
Quote from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
For those not acquainted with the island, it lies between Scotland and Northern Ireland, it's nearest mainland port is Ballycastle, six miles from Rathlin, with some of the strongest tides running between. The islanders themselves would refer to it by its old name of Raghery. The Mull of Kintyre in Scotland beckons in the distance. In the past the island was of strategic importance in the ancient kingdom of Dalriada. The marauding Vikings plundered the island, no doubt killing the peaceful monks in their island sanctuary. Throughout the turbulent history of it's larger neighbours ,the island became a death-trap for the population and suffered several massacres, a prelude to the events during both world wars when many ships were sunk around it's shores.
Many legendary characters from history are associated with the island such as 'Robert the Bruce', king of Scotland who sought refuge here and was inspired by a famous spider to continue his struggle to win the throne of Scotland, Francis Drake was involved in a notorious massacre of the islanders, and the famous Marconi, conducted the world's first commercial application of the new fangled radio for Lloyds of London in 1898, which heralded in the mass communication of today. The audacious tycoon, Sir Richard Branson made his record breaking transatlantic hot air balloon flight from America and came to grief near Rathlin in July 1987 and catapulted my late husband Tommy and his partner Neil McFaul to fame , when they went to his rescue and as a thank you he generously contributed a handsome donation to the island.
The great Famine of the 1840s lead to a drastic fall in the islands population through emigration, mainly to America but also Canada. The population dropped from over a thousand to just over four hundred, until today it stands at approx 150, a grievous blow to the confidence of the community.
An occasional descendant would visit the island hoping to see their family homes and Tommy would make the effort to show them around. He heard from some who lived in Wisconsin or Maine, that on their gravestones, they had carved 'Native of Rathlin Island ' such was their love of the land they came from. The evidence of that terrible time lies on the landscape with the ruins of their homesteads dotted about the island.
The island has a wonderful habitat for wildlife with many unique flowers and you can enjoy the lazy old seals lolling around the shores . Dolphins have lately taken to sporting beside the ferries on their passage to Ballycastle. There are those magical moments when you catch a glimpse of Rathlin's golden hares and out at the West Lighthouse there's one of Europe's most important bird sanctuaries, which has been developed into bird viewing areas by the RSPB and literally thousands of breeding sea birds can be seen flying busily during the summer breeding season, with the wonderful iconic Puffins nesting in their burrows at the cliff edges .All these features of Rathlin were pretty unknown to me before I came and were an inspiring revelation.
I had the privilege of settling on the island at a crucial moment when the community was hovering on the edge of extinction by the neglect of the responsible authorities, happy to ignore its decline to the point of desperation. The island was poised between the past and the future beckoned. That transition was a time of struggle for survival which you could argue mirrored the situation on the Mainland, but thankfully through the dogged determination of the islanders, slowly but surely the tides turned.
As I look out at the restless seas around Rathlin, I can't avoid reflecting on what is the appeal and nature of the island, and the community and what is it's relevance to Ulster's wider society.
When I became aware of this unknown place where my family came from, it's very mysteriousness became a magnet to me in my childhood. The adults around me offered only tantalising glimpses which fed my fascination to go to this place. I had to go. It became a compulsion which never truly
2
faded. And so by a circuitous route it happened, and I came.
I was born in Govan, Glasgow, the only daughter with four brothers. My grandfather had left Rathlin as a young lad and went to Greenock as many an islander had before him. He eventually became a Merchant seaman and worked his way up until he became a Tugboat Skipper . There were so many ship carpenters and seaman from Rathlin working on the Clyde it became known as the 'Rathlin Fleet ' I was born in his house as housing was scarce after the war. My mother was an Orcadian, from Kirkwall in the Orkneys, who met my father when he was based there for a while during the war. So it's funny she came from an island to a city and I did the reverse. She missed the sea the rest of her life and I can appreciate that much better now than I did as a child. We moved to the outskirts of the city when I was a toddler. When we visited my grandfather , he would usually be found sanding down a model boat he was building and would take it to the nearby sailing pond at the local park to sail it with my big brother. When I say a model boat I mean it would be six feet tall with magnificent sails which would stun the locals out with their tiny boats. He was a true islander and now I can see he was trying to keep connected to his island roots.
There were lots of kids on the street where I lived and we all played outside from morning to night until it got dark. Cars were pretty uncommon. There were all these crazes at the time .Yoyo's and scrap collection for the girls much like the football cards of today. The highlight of our years was the Annual Fair with all the rides and penny games. The candy floss and toffee apples were hankered for. I never saw a TV until I was five and it was a neighbours, but we did go to the cinema to watch cowboy films and I loved the great swashbuckling Errol Flynn .The 'rag and bone man' would turn up with his horse and cart and for old clothes or whatever, you would be rewarded with a nice shiny sixpence. We loved it when that man trundled up our street.
Teddy boys came in and Elvis Presley with his jiving. I remember sitting with my best friend giggling at the antics of her big brothers swanking down the stairs with their drainpipe trousers, velvet collared jackets combing their hair on the way, to meet up with the girls in their 'Beehive hairdos' and tight skirts, hobbling along on stilettos.
I left school and had a variety of jobs. One of them was in a Kilt-Making factory, of all things, where sad to say I left after three weeks. I didn't cut it as a sewer and got bored with the cutting. I eventually made it as a wage clerk for a large construction company, responsible for over a thousand men's wages on a weekly basis, and God help you if you made a mistake. . I was a teenager in the Swinging Sixties when Mini skirts, the Beatles and 'Top of the Pops' and all that came in. Drugs never featured on my horizon as drinking was the preferred choice around me.
I got married and had two children Elizabeth and Michael ,so left work to raise them which was the usual at the time. Over time I grew restless and unhappy for various reasons and my marriage started to fall apart. It was at this point I decided to do what I had wanted to for so long and find out about Rathlin, so I wrote a letter and a reply came flying back almost immediately. From one of Tommy Cecil, and we wrote back and forth until I was invited to visit . So there it was the day came when I realised my life's ambition and finally came to Rathlin.
Tommy met me in Larne and we travelled to Ballycastle with Tommy pointing out the various places and their names along the way. It was drizzling rain by the time we reached the harbour and there was the boat waiting. I must confess it seemed very small with the passengers fussing about under canvas for shelter so setting aside my trepidation, not wanting to come across as some sort of typical city nervous Nelly, in we clambered. Half way across the rain stopped, the fog lifted and like a curtain unveiling, the beautiful island and the bay swept into view. It was breathtaking.
I struggle to express the magnitude of all it meant when I first stepped ashore. The best way I can put it into words was 'all my senses came alive'
Beyond the beautiful bay and up a long winding road, lay the old family home I was given a warm Irish welcome and began getting to know my relatives. I loved hearing all the yarns from the
3
past. The other island homes were pretty much scattered throughout the island and it took me time to navigate everything. I quickly learned how important the weather reports were. At six o'clock, as everyone huddled around the radio listening out for 'Malin Head' on the weather forecast. Indeed the weather, whether it was going to 'blow' dominated every conversation. 'Did the boat go?' 'Who came over ?' 'Were there many visitors ?' 'There's a good scud of wind the day' 'The ebb was goin like the clappers' 'There's a run on the shores the day' Nearly a foreign language to me.
So many things were different, the names such as Augustus, Cornelius , Sylvester, Malachy etc, were wonderfully old fashioned to me and the social life was lively. Dances at the hall were a weekly event and organised by the young bachelors. I had no experience whatsoever of the popular 'Waves of Tory' or 'The Lancers' but they were great fun.
The music ranged between Country with epic names like 'Big Tom & the Mainliners' Philomena Begley and many other popular singers of the time, with traditional fiddle and plenty of natural musicians about, happy to have a session. I had been more accustomed to the Beatles & the Rolling Stones so it was a culture shock in a way.
The only downside was the traditional habits of the menfolk not sallying forth to the hall, until the pub shut, so the dances didn't get going until after midnight to the annoyance of the womenfolk sitting waiting for it to start. At least the habit of some priests lurking about outside to remonstrate with courting couples had disappeared when I was there.
I had fallen in love with the island and enjoyed everything about it . The fantastic scenery, it's rich history, the way of life, it was intoxicating and of course my guide & companion who made a tremendous impression on me for his dynamic character and a mind with ideas so different from anybody I had ever known, I was swept away with everything.
So after a wonderful holiday I returned to Glasgow and the marriage ended for good within a few months and I returned to Rathlin to live permanently.
I became a Rathlin housewife and our family grew until I was a mother of seven children . It was a unique way of life with many challenges along the way. So what was it like for a city woman to live in such an alien environment? All I can say is it was certainly a world apart from my previous life but I loved the island and felt I had come home so I was more than willing to endure any and all hardships.
At that time I was in my early twenties and interested in the immediate beauty of the place and acquainting myself with the family history and exploring the what's and whys of the people and their history, rather than the deeper aspects of living in a remote island cut off from the normal existence. So the great journey into this wonderful island began. I consider myself to have been extremely fortunate to have lived the life of an islander, with all the richness it gave me. Love and family, friendships and a better understanding of what really matters in life, the necessity to be adaptable in an ever changing world. I was both indeed 'within and without'.
The older generation could name most of the plants and flowers and any medicinal qualities they possessed, which would have been important in the past when there were no medical services to mention. Their knowledge was impressive.
The Irish Language today is a bone of contention on the mainland but how much it is part of identity isn't recognised the way it should be. Every field ,every port and place has an name,usually descriptive, in Irish on the island and is a great sorrow that it has disappeared. The landlord and the Catholic Church played their part in it's eradication and not forgetting it was forbidden during penal times in Ireland, yet it had a uniqueness here. For many years there was a tradition of trading between Rathlin and Islay at the Lammas Fair, when the folks from Donegal would require the translation services of the Rathlin islanders speakers because of the language differences between the Irish Gaelic and the Scots Gaelic.
4
The language was written and spoken by one generation, the next could only speak it until today it has vanished and it's loss is mourned . During the Second World War a linguistic expert Nils Homer, from the continent, spent a time recording the Irish speakers phonetically and published a book on his findings. .(The Irish Language of Rathlin Island ,County Antrim 1942) Tommy craved to have one of those, but for the poor author it was a hazardous enterprise. Some islanders had been appointed with special duties during the war, and were warned about spies and their activities. One islander determined to do his duties became suspicious of this foreigner with his notebook asking questions around the island, and took it upon himself to arrest the hapless Mr Homer. A shotgun was produced and it got a bit heated until wiser heads prevailed and the poor guy was able to prove what he was doing.
The island has a rich legacy of such stories and Tommy loved gathering them up and relating them . For someone like me it was pure pleasure to hear all the yarns and exploits of life on a small island.
So I found myself in an exciting place and as far from suburbia as I could ever have wanted, and I must say I felt really alive for the first time in my life.
The first aspect of living in an island, it's isolation, has changed on the island through better harbours, which lead to better ferries and has reduced the impact on the community today; however, when I came to the island I faced this as an immediate force to come to terms with. I was an innocent abroad as it were, and had no idea what it was like but it was a great challenge to be overcome and frustrating as it was, you had to simply accept it's realities as a fact, and find a way to live with it. The consolation and binding imperative was ,I was not alone, the whole community lived with it on a daily basis so it required a willingness to recognise the limitations of island living.
To live your life at the vagaries of nature instils a respect, a humbleness that after all you can't rule the sea, it rules you and your needs don't matter. Rather different from catching a bus to work in a city. I did have a few trips across to the mainland which I don't mind admitting scared the hell out of me , but other times it was frustrating not being able to trot to the shops when the urge took you.
Slowly but surely it shifted my perspectives and I submitted. The frustrations became a grudging acceptance with occasional lamentations against this force that couldn't be negotiated with. So that was the first change in my outlook. It required a state of mind that recognized the limitations of being human in a world where you adjusted to matters beyond your control. The compromises were costly in daily life. Nature was ruling and it took no prisoners.
The other defining feature in this situation was the perils of the passage in small open boats, between the mainland and the island, with some of the strongest tides in Ireland.As you huddled under a bit of canvas as the waves swept over on a bad day , you soon realised how totally reliant you were on the skills of the boatmen. This was a novel situation for me. Somebody didn't do a good job, well you could complain and have the satisfaction of that, but not here. The knowledge of those other human beings and their abilities to navigate through the perils you faced ,didn't half induce your respect that when it really mattered, your life was in their hands,quite a thought. So the two things unified, the islander's needs of each other against the force of nature.
This powerful awareness over many generations, brings a uniqueness of outlook and attitude to daily life where adaptive behaviour is the key. Mostly when I was younger I didn't recognise this essential difference between islanders and mainlanders but I did admire their ability to survive ,whilst the underlying, unspoken bonds between each other and the necessity to co-operate I didn't value to the extent I do today.
Of course such circumstances can cause a siege mentality which you wouldn't recognise in the individual but the adaptations to such uncontrollable forces I believe brings about a flexibility in your daily life and the need to take a more laid back approach is essential. Time and deadlines dictating your life are no longer factors . So long as you strived within the constraints and survived,
5
then all is good. The island is a good place to grow up in because you can learn to take things in your stride to a degree unknown in the mainland.
Being able to salvage unwanted material was a vital necessity and I was in great admiration of the islander's skills in regard to this. Nothing was thrown away. The men were very skilful at mending and fixing things especially the boats. You had to shift for yourself. Nobody was going to turn up just like that if something needed repair, so you learned. The sheer natural inborn adaptability was striking to me. Necessity is the mother of invention and was a maxim the islanders lived by. It' since became a problem for me as I've became a real hoarder and that's a typical island way of going on.
Recycling was a way of life and the wasteful ways of visitors a source of irritation. The appreciation of your environment and it's meaning in your life is another valuable lesson for mainlanders and becoming the most important issue for society today.
The drudgery of life as a woman and without electricity was epic I must admit. I can hardly believe today how willing I was to live without it. At the time when my children were all young I used to gallop home from running our shop, to put on a large pot which chefs would use, on our calor gas stove to boil for washing the clothes then pray to God it wouldn’t rain before they were dry. I seemed to spend half my life wrestling with clothes, in and out and no relief in sight. I am so thankful today that the mercy of modern conveniences are even available on our small island.
Violence between islanders is extremely rare and consideration of why that is the case, is worthy of attention. Religious beliefs are of course important to an islander and living so closely with nature makes you more aware of your mortality, and the emotional ties between families with a historical connection for generations plays its part. The islanders are peaceful by nature and habit and enjoy contemplating the ironies of the human condition. You simply had to rub along with each other as best you could.
There's no escaping the scrutiny of other eyes on an island which I did find difficult when I first came, but small communities are the same everywhere in that aspect and it helped me in a similar setting when I lived on the mainland for several years, after my husband Tommy died. I learned very well from the island, about the best way to integrate into a small, closely knit community.
So basically on the one hand there are many constraints and on the other a high level of tolerance to matters which would not be the case elsewhere. I don't suggest that Rathlin has a perfect society,there's no such thing, but in comparison to lives lived elsewhere, it's definitely a place apart.
Despite surface appearances, the islanders have a highly evolved and yet subtle system of balances and checks which is of great value socially, and demonstrates the best behaviour comes through co-operation.
The islander's life is relieved by having a good sense of humour and a bit of harmless tricks being played on each other passes the time, and of course there were so many memorable characters renown for this, with a few eccentrics to add a bit of spice to daily life. There's a certain sense that there's no rush here, no frantic urge to do things; it's more important to be civil and generous ,to share life rather than rush through it.
The greatest amusement was having a bit of fun at the visitor's expense and some truly deserve it, for their patronising attitudes to the islanders, thinking they were so quaint and all that. They were fair game and it was good sport to pass time with a bit of leg pulling, but overall their generous hospitality to visitors was well known.
What do the islanders 'do' for a social life? This is the burning question of the visitors. 'What do they be doing there?. Well music, drama,dancing, story-telling, arts & crafts, with increasing interest in traditional skills such as boat-building are part of the activities followed today and Rathlin is rich in such skills.
The recent success of the Maritime Festival is looked forward to every year but means a lot of work
6
for the organisers. The traditional miniature yacht races on one of the island loughs are looked forward to with the boats made in the winter and a lot of friendly rivalry on the merits of each boat.
Young people from the mainland are losing social skills and the rewards of actually creating something is missing in their lives. A summer spent on Rathlin would be so good for many young people from the mainland, learning how to enjoy the outdoors with plenty of opportunities to fish and sail boats, and learn some practical skills.
The children are the island's most precious treasure and nothing gives greater pleasure to the older generation than passing on their traditions and memories to them. The island children don't need manufactured entertainment, to the extent of their generation living on the other side of the water. They all love outside doing things in the summer and wouldn't dream of vandalising their place.
My own children found it difficult to understand how to relate to the children on the mainland. Their mindset was so completely different and when they came face to face with those differences on a daily basis, it was an unhappy experience for island children to learn how much it mattered . The rite of passage for an island child which could make or break them, was when they had to locate to the mainland for Secondary Education. It was a most painful time for both parent and child and to be met with the casually given opinion that they were ignorant, not knowing what was 'in or out' in their social circles, was baffling. Yet the island children were vastly superior in their attitudes to so much. It's the children in the towns and cities who don't know what really matters. 'They don't get it'
There was a trip to the island schoolchildren to teach them about safety on the roads. The good people brought out all the leaflets and explained the 'Green Cross Code'. When the lights turn green you cross the road'. My children were mystified. What were they talking about?. It's funny when I think of it now.
To have an affinity with nature and their environment,to know you come from an ancient culture with a firm idea of identity, to have an ability to amuse yourself and create , to care for others these are the 'things' the mainlanders don't have. How sad is that and what warped values so many young people have today. They've been robbed of so much and struggle to meet the challenges they face. 'You can take a child from the island but you can't take the island from the child' My children knew this and treasure the memories of growing up on Rathlin .
Many memorable characters I came to know over the years have passed away and I miss them and their generation. Their outlook was tolerant and generous but there are many new islanders who have made their homes here and although it's easier today it's still a challenge and sure what would the place be without a community, so life goes on and new traditions and opportunities are created, so there's always folks out here to welcome the visitors who wonder 'What do they be doing there?' and isn't that a great thing .
I hope the powers that be, will continue to appreciate that the monies they spend on Rathlin is money well spent and perhaps there will be more opportunities for young people to come on over and spend time getting to know this wonderful place which offers 'real' and worthwhile experiences they can carry wherever they go.
I hope you've enjoyed my 'blog' as they call it and perhaps I'll delve a bit deeper and share much more of my life on Rathlin on another day.
Quote from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
For those not acquainted with the island, it lies between Scotland and Northern Ireland, it's nearest mainland port is Ballycastle, six miles from Rathlin, with some of the strongest tides running between. The islanders themselves would refer to it by its old name of Raghery. The Mull of Kintyre in Scotland beckons in the distance. In the past the island was of strategic importance in the ancient kingdom of Dalriada. The marauding Vikings plundered the island, no doubt killing the peaceful monks in their island sanctuary. Throughout the turbulent history of it's larger neighbours ,the island became a death-trap for the population and suffered several massacres, a prelude to the events during both world wars when many ships were sunk around it's shores.
Many legendary characters from history are associated with the island such as 'Robert the Bruce', king of Scotland who sought refuge here and was inspired by a famous spider to continue his struggle to win the throne of Scotland, Francis Drake was involved in a notorious massacre of the islanders, and the famous Marconi, conducted the world's first commercial application of the new fangled radio for Lloyds of London in 1898, which heralded in the mass communication of today. The audacious tycoon, Sir Richard Branson made his record breaking transatlantic hot air balloon flight from America and came to grief near Rathlin in July 1987 and catapulted my late husband Tommy and his partner Neil McFaul to fame , when they went to his rescue and as a thank you he generously contributed a handsome donation to the island.
The great Famine of the 1840s lead to a drastic fall in the islands population through emigration, mainly to America but also Canada. The population dropped from over a thousand to just over four hundred, until today it stands at approx 150, a grievous blow to the confidence of the community.
An occasional descendant would visit the island hoping to see their family homes and Tommy would make the effort to show them around. He heard from some who lived in Wisconsin or Maine, that on their gravestones, they had carved 'Native of Rathlin Island ' such was their love of the land they came from. The evidence of that terrible time lies on the landscape with the ruins of their homesteads dotted about the island.
The island has a wonderful habitat for wildlife with many unique flowers and you can enjoy the lazy old seals lolling around the shores . Dolphins have lately taken to sporting beside the ferries on their passage to Ballycastle. There are those magical moments when you catch a glimpse of Rathlin's golden hares and out at the West Lighthouse there's one of Europe's most important bird sanctuaries, which has been developed into bird viewing areas by the RSPB and literally thousands of breeding sea birds can be seen flying busily during the summer breeding season, with the wonderful iconic Puffins nesting in their burrows at the cliff edges .All these features of Rathlin were pretty unknown to me before I came and were an inspiring revelation.
I had the privilege of settling on the island at a crucial moment when the community was hovering on the edge of extinction by the neglect of the responsible authorities, happy to ignore its decline to the point of desperation. The island was poised between the past and the future beckoned. That transition was a time of struggle for survival which you could argue mirrored the situation on the Mainland, but thankfully through the dogged determination of the islanders, slowly but surely the tides turned.
As I look out at the restless seas around Rathlin, I can't avoid reflecting on what is the appeal and nature of the island, and the community and what is it's relevance to Ulster's wider society.
When I became aware of this unknown place where my family came from, it's very mysteriousness became a magnet to me in my childhood. The adults around me offered only tantalising glimpses which fed my fascination to go to this place. I had to go. It became a compulsion which never truly
2
faded. And so by a circuitous route it happened, and I came.
I was born in Govan, Glasgow, the only daughter with four brothers. My grandfather had left Rathlin as a young lad and went to Greenock as many an islander had before him. He eventually became a Merchant seaman and worked his way up until he became a Tugboat Skipper . There were so many ship carpenters and seaman from Rathlin working on the Clyde it became known as the 'Rathlin Fleet ' I was born in his house as housing was scarce after the war. My mother was an Orcadian, from Kirkwall in the Orkneys, who met my father when he was based there for a while during the war. So it's funny she came from an island to a city and I did the reverse. She missed the sea the rest of her life and I can appreciate that much better now than I did as a child. We moved to the outskirts of the city when I was a toddler. When we visited my grandfather , he would usually be found sanding down a model boat he was building and would take it to the nearby sailing pond at the local park to sail it with my big brother. When I say a model boat I mean it would be six feet tall with magnificent sails which would stun the locals out with their tiny boats. He was a true islander and now I can see he was trying to keep connected to his island roots.
There were lots of kids on the street where I lived and we all played outside from morning to night until it got dark. Cars were pretty uncommon. There were all these crazes at the time .Yoyo's and scrap collection for the girls much like the football cards of today. The highlight of our years was the Annual Fair with all the rides and penny games. The candy floss and toffee apples were hankered for. I never saw a TV until I was five and it was a neighbours, but we did go to the cinema to watch cowboy films and I loved the great swashbuckling Errol Flynn .The 'rag and bone man' would turn up with his horse and cart and for old clothes or whatever, you would be rewarded with a nice shiny sixpence. We loved it when that man trundled up our street.
Teddy boys came in and Elvis Presley with his jiving. I remember sitting with my best friend giggling at the antics of her big brothers swanking down the stairs with their drainpipe trousers, velvet collared jackets combing their hair on the way, to meet up with the girls in their 'Beehive hairdos' and tight skirts, hobbling along on stilettos.
I left school and had a variety of jobs. One of them was in a Kilt-Making factory, of all things, where sad to say I left after three weeks. I didn't cut it as a sewer and got bored with the cutting. I eventually made it as a wage clerk for a large construction company, responsible for over a thousand men's wages on a weekly basis, and God help you if you made a mistake. . I was a teenager in the Swinging Sixties when Mini skirts, the Beatles and 'Top of the Pops' and all that came in. Drugs never featured on my horizon as drinking was the preferred choice around me.
I got married and had two children Elizabeth and Michael ,so left work to raise them which was the usual at the time. Over time I grew restless and unhappy for various reasons and my marriage started to fall apart. It was at this point I decided to do what I had wanted to for so long and find out about Rathlin, so I wrote a letter and a reply came flying back almost immediately. From one of Tommy Cecil, and we wrote back and forth until I was invited to visit . So there it was the day came when I realised my life's ambition and finally came to Rathlin.
Tommy met me in Larne and we travelled to Ballycastle with Tommy pointing out the various places and their names along the way. It was drizzling rain by the time we reached the harbour and there was the boat waiting. I must confess it seemed very small with the passengers fussing about under canvas for shelter so setting aside my trepidation, not wanting to come across as some sort of typical city nervous Nelly, in we clambered. Half way across the rain stopped, the fog lifted and like a curtain unveiling, the beautiful island and the bay swept into view. It was breathtaking.
I struggle to express the magnitude of all it meant when I first stepped ashore. The best way I can put it into words was 'all my senses came alive'
Beyond the beautiful bay and up a long winding road, lay the old family home I was given a warm Irish welcome and began getting to know my relatives. I loved hearing all the yarns from the
3
past. The other island homes were pretty much scattered throughout the island and it took me time to navigate everything. I quickly learned how important the weather reports were. At six o'clock, as everyone huddled around the radio listening out for 'Malin Head' on the weather forecast. Indeed the weather, whether it was going to 'blow' dominated every conversation. 'Did the boat go?' 'Who came over ?' 'Were there many visitors ?' 'There's a good scud of wind the day' 'The ebb was goin like the clappers' 'There's a run on the shores the day' Nearly a foreign language to me.
So many things were different, the names such as Augustus, Cornelius , Sylvester, Malachy etc, were wonderfully old fashioned to me and the social life was lively. Dances at the hall were a weekly event and organised by the young bachelors. I had no experience whatsoever of the popular 'Waves of Tory' or 'The Lancers' but they were great fun.
The music ranged between Country with epic names like 'Big Tom & the Mainliners' Philomena Begley and many other popular singers of the time, with traditional fiddle and plenty of natural musicians about, happy to have a session. I had been more accustomed to the Beatles & the Rolling Stones so it was a culture shock in a way.
The only downside was the traditional habits of the menfolk not sallying forth to the hall, until the pub shut, so the dances didn't get going until after midnight to the annoyance of the womenfolk sitting waiting for it to start. At least the habit of some priests lurking about outside to remonstrate with courting couples had disappeared when I was there.
I had fallen in love with the island and enjoyed everything about it . The fantastic scenery, it's rich history, the way of life, it was intoxicating and of course my guide & companion who made a tremendous impression on me for his dynamic character and a mind with ideas so different from anybody I had ever known, I was swept away with everything.
So after a wonderful holiday I returned to Glasgow and the marriage ended for good within a few months and I returned to Rathlin to live permanently.
I became a Rathlin housewife and our family grew until I was a mother of seven children . It was a unique way of life with many challenges along the way. So what was it like for a city woman to live in such an alien environment? All I can say is it was certainly a world apart from my previous life but I loved the island and felt I had come home so I was more than willing to endure any and all hardships.
At that time I was in my early twenties and interested in the immediate beauty of the place and acquainting myself with the family history and exploring the what's and whys of the people and their history, rather than the deeper aspects of living in a remote island cut off from the normal existence. So the great journey into this wonderful island began. I consider myself to have been extremely fortunate to have lived the life of an islander, with all the richness it gave me. Love and family, friendships and a better understanding of what really matters in life, the necessity to be adaptable in an ever changing world. I was both indeed 'within and without'.
The older generation could name most of the plants and flowers and any medicinal qualities they possessed, which would have been important in the past when there were no medical services to mention. Their knowledge was impressive.
The Irish Language today is a bone of contention on the mainland but how much it is part of identity isn't recognised the way it should be. Every field ,every port and place has an name,usually descriptive, in Irish on the island and is a great sorrow that it has disappeared. The landlord and the Catholic Church played their part in it's eradication and not forgetting it was forbidden during penal times in Ireland, yet it had a uniqueness here. For many years there was a tradition of trading between Rathlin and Islay at the Lammas Fair, when the folks from Donegal would require the translation services of the Rathlin islanders speakers because of the language differences between the Irish Gaelic and the Scots Gaelic.
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The language was written and spoken by one generation, the next could only speak it until today it has vanished and it's loss is mourned . During the Second World War a linguistic expert Nils Homer, from the continent, spent a time recording the Irish speakers phonetically and published a book on his findings. .(The Irish Language of Rathlin Island ,County Antrim 1942) Tommy craved to have one of those, but for the poor author it was a hazardous enterprise. Some islanders had been appointed with special duties during the war, and were warned about spies and their activities. One islander determined to do his duties became suspicious of this foreigner with his notebook asking questions around the island, and took it upon himself to arrest the hapless Mr Homer. A shotgun was produced and it got a bit heated until wiser heads prevailed and the poor guy was able to prove what he was doing.
The island has a rich legacy of such stories and Tommy loved gathering them up and relating them . For someone like me it was pure pleasure to hear all the yarns and exploits of life on a small island.
So I found myself in an exciting place and as far from suburbia as I could ever have wanted, and I must say I felt really alive for the first time in my life.
The first aspect of living in an island, it's isolation, has changed on the island through better harbours, which lead to better ferries and has reduced the impact on the community today; however, when I came to the island I faced this as an immediate force to come to terms with. I was an innocent abroad as it were, and had no idea what it was like but it was a great challenge to be overcome and frustrating as it was, you had to simply accept it's realities as a fact, and find a way to live with it. The consolation and binding imperative was ,I was not alone, the whole community lived with it on a daily basis so it required a willingness to recognise the limitations of island living.
To live your life at the vagaries of nature instils a respect, a humbleness that after all you can't rule the sea, it rules you and your needs don't matter. Rather different from catching a bus to work in a city. I did have a few trips across to the mainland which I don't mind admitting scared the hell out of me , but other times it was frustrating not being able to trot to the shops when the urge took you.
Slowly but surely it shifted my perspectives and I submitted. The frustrations became a grudging acceptance with occasional lamentations against this force that couldn't be negotiated with. So that was the first change in my outlook. It required a state of mind that recognized the limitations of being human in a world where you adjusted to matters beyond your control. The compromises were costly in daily life. Nature was ruling and it took no prisoners.
The other defining feature in this situation was the perils of the passage in small open boats, between the mainland and the island, with some of the strongest tides in Ireland.As you huddled under a bit of canvas as the waves swept over on a bad day , you soon realised how totally reliant you were on the skills of the boatmen. This was a novel situation for me. Somebody didn't do a good job, well you could complain and have the satisfaction of that, but not here. The knowledge of those other human beings and their abilities to navigate through the perils you faced ,didn't half induce your respect that when it really mattered, your life was in their hands,quite a thought. So the two things unified, the islander's needs of each other against the force of nature.
This powerful awareness over many generations, brings a uniqueness of outlook and attitude to daily life where adaptive behaviour is the key. Mostly when I was younger I didn't recognise this essential difference between islanders and mainlanders but I did admire their ability to survive ,whilst the underlying, unspoken bonds between each other and the necessity to co-operate I didn't value to the extent I do today.
Of course such circumstances can cause a siege mentality which you wouldn't recognise in the individual but the adaptations to such uncontrollable forces I believe brings about a flexibility in your daily life and the need to take a more laid back approach is essential. Time and deadlines dictating your life are no longer factors . So long as you strived within the constraints and survived,
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then all is good. The island is a good place to grow up in because you can learn to take things in your stride to a degree unknown in the mainland.
Being able to salvage unwanted material was a vital necessity and I was in great admiration of the islander's skills in regard to this. Nothing was thrown away. The men were very skilful at mending and fixing things especially the boats. You had to shift for yourself. Nobody was going to turn up just like that if something needed repair, so you learned. The sheer natural inborn adaptability was striking to me. Necessity is the mother of invention and was a maxim the islanders lived by. It' since became a problem for me as I've became a real hoarder and that's a typical island way of going on.
Recycling was a way of life and the wasteful ways of visitors a source of irritation. The appreciation of your environment and it's meaning in your life is another valuable lesson for mainlanders and becoming the most important issue for society today.
The drudgery of life as a woman and without electricity was epic I must admit. I can hardly believe today how willing I was to live without it. At the time when my children were all young I used to gallop home from running our shop, to put on a large pot which chefs would use, on our calor gas stove to boil for washing the clothes then pray to God it wouldn’t rain before they were dry. I seemed to spend half my life wrestling with clothes, in and out and no relief in sight. I am so thankful today that the mercy of modern conveniences are even available on our small island.
Violence between islanders is extremely rare and consideration of why that is the case, is worthy of attention. Religious beliefs are of course important to an islander and living so closely with nature makes you more aware of your mortality, and the emotional ties between families with a historical connection for generations plays its part. The islanders are peaceful by nature and habit and enjoy contemplating the ironies of the human condition. You simply had to rub along with each other as best you could.
There's no escaping the scrutiny of other eyes on an island which I did find difficult when I first came, but small communities are the same everywhere in that aspect and it helped me in a similar setting when I lived on the mainland for several years, after my husband Tommy died. I learned very well from the island, about the best way to integrate into a small, closely knit community.
So basically on the one hand there are many constraints and on the other a high level of tolerance to matters which would not be the case elsewhere. I don't suggest that Rathlin has a perfect society,there's no such thing, but in comparison to lives lived elsewhere, it's definitely a place apart.
Despite surface appearances, the islanders have a highly evolved and yet subtle system of balances and checks which is of great value socially, and demonstrates the best behaviour comes through co-operation.
The islander's life is relieved by having a good sense of humour and a bit of harmless tricks being played on each other passes the time, and of course there were so many memorable characters renown for this, with a few eccentrics to add a bit of spice to daily life. There's a certain sense that there's no rush here, no frantic urge to do things; it's more important to be civil and generous ,to share life rather than rush through it.
The greatest amusement was having a bit of fun at the visitor's expense and some truly deserve it, for their patronising attitudes to the islanders, thinking they were so quaint and all that. They were fair game and it was good sport to pass time with a bit of leg pulling, but overall their generous hospitality to visitors was well known.
What do the islanders 'do' for a social life? This is the burning question of the visitors. 'What do they be doing there?. Well music, drama,dancing, story-telling, arts & crafts, with increasing interest in traditional skills such as boat-building are part of the activities followed today and Rathlin is rich in such skills.
The recent success of the Maritime Festival is looked forward to every year but means a lot of work
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for the organisers. The traditional miniature yacht races on one of the island loughs are looked forward to with the boats made in the winter and a lot of friendly rivalry on the merits of each boat.
Young people from the mainland are losing social skills and the rewards of actually creating something is missing in their lives. A summer spent on Rathlin would be so good for many young people from the mainland, learning how to enjoy the outdoors with plenty of opportunities to fish and sail boats, and learn some practical skills.
The children are the island's most precious treasure and nothing gives greater pleasure to the older generation than passing on their traditions and memories to them. The island children don't need manufactured entertainment, to the extent of their generation living on the other side of the water. They all love outside doing things in the summer and wouldn't dream of vandalising their place.
My own children found it difficult to understand how to relate to the children on the mainland. Their mindset was so completely different and when they came face to face with those differences on a daily basis, it was an unhappy experience for island children to learn how much it mattered . The rite of passage for an island child which could make or break them, was when they had to locate to the mainland for Secondary Education. It was a most painful time for both parent and child and to be met with the casually given opinion that they were ignorant, not knowing what was 'in or out' in their social circles, was baffling. Yet the island children were vastly superior in their attitudes to so much. It's the children in the towns and cities who don't know what really matters. 'They don't get it'
There was a trip to the island schoolchildren to teach them about safety on the roads. The good people brought out all the leaflets and explained the 'Green Cross Code'. When the lights turn green you cross the road'. My children were mystified. What were they talking about?. It's funny when I think of it now.
To have an affinity with nature and their environment,to know you come from an ancient culture with a firm idea of identity, to have an ability to amuse yourself and create , to care for others these are the 'things' the mainlanders don't have. How sad is that and what warped values so many young people have today. They've been robbed of so much and struggle to meet the challenges they face. 'You can take a child from the island but you can't take the island from the child' My children knew this and treasure the memories of growing up on Rathlin .
Many memorable characters I came to know over the years have passed away and I miss them and their generation. Their outlook was tolerant and generous but there are many new islanders who have made their homes here and although it's easier today it's still a challenge and sure what would the place be without a community, so life goes on and new traditions and opportunities are created, so there's always folks out here to welcome the visitors who wonder 'What do they be doing there?' and isn't that a great thing .
I hope the powers that be, will continue to appreciate that the monies they spend on Rathlin is money well spent and perhaps there will be more opportunities for young people to come on over and spend time getting to know this wonderful place which offers 'real' and worthwhile experiences they can carry wherever they go.
I hope you've enjoyed my 'blog' as they call it and perhaps I'll delve a bit deeper and share much more of my life on Rathlin on another day.