Inishtrahull Island - The Islanders

The Islanders

The island is now uninhabited but had a resident community until 1929 and lighthousekeepers until 1987. The evacuation of the community from Inistrahull took place en-bloc in 1929. The matter was raised in a Dáil debate on illegal fishing in November, 1929 by the TD for the area, Deputy Carney. The Deputy stated that Inishtrahull was one of the few places in the country where the population had actually increased by almost 100% from 1881 to 1901. He said that the people on the island had a school and a graveyard and earned their livelihood from the fishing industry with very small boats for inshore fishing and that they could line fish and fish with nets during the herring season. Deputy Carney said that ordinarily they were able to make a reasonable living. However, he said that because of illegal fishing by “Scotch and English trawlers and French fishing smacks” the islanders had been compelled some weeks earlier to evacuate the island, desert their homes and leave only a lighthousekeeper behind.

Responding the Minister for Fisheries, Fionán Lynch TD said that he did not agree that the people had left the island because of illegal fishing and was making enquiries as to their current circumstances. The Minister said that he “would like to feel that everything was being done to keep them from being a permanent charge on home assistance”. The Minister later sent a Principal Officer from his Department to report on their circumstances. The Minister then reported in the Dáil that “four of the families derived their livelihood from the Irish Lights boat service to the island, in which they are still able to engage” and that there was no case state intervention. He also said that his Officer’s report indicated that the resettled Islanders were not in “poor circumstances”.