Dan MacCarthy: Island full of watchful eyes
Deer Island, which is tantalisingly close to the mainland, is now uninhabited. However, this Co Clare island, resplendent in its estuarine environment, was up to relatively recently (1901) a thriving home to 50 people. The last resident of all the Fergus islands, Brigid Anne Tuohy, had lived on Deer Island and died in 2004.
Today, the island is farmed, with livestock moved back and forth to the mainland on purpose-built lighters. Back in the day, butter was churned in the farms and sold on the mainland.
The island, also known as Inishmore, is one of a cluster in the northern part of the Fergus Estuary. It is the largest of the islands in the Fergus Estuary, being of similar size to Coney Island, Inishmacowney (Horse), and Canon Island. It has a few diminutive neighbours, such as Rat Island, which would fit snugly into one of its fields. The population peaked at 133 persons in 1841.
Over the centuries, many of Ireland’s islands had issues with State control and islanders felt, with sound logic, that if they were not able to avail of services and infrastructure — such as roads, ferry, schools, electricity and mains water — why should they pay rates? There was no national school, but a private school was built.
As late as 1970, a coroner speaking at an inquest into the deaths of two people on Coney Island said that many of the islanders might as well be living in the jungles of Africa for all the authorities seemed to care, that they were forgotten people. Two years prior to this, Coney had accepted electricity, but three of six families on Deer rejected the "modern convenience".
Well, the authorities didn’t have it all their own way. Decrees against several islanders were issued at Kildysart Court, but they proved impossible to execute.
The nearest point to shore from Deer Island is at Rosscliff jetty, a mere 300m away. However, without access to a boat, you may as well have been in Co Donegal in trying to reach it. Such was the quandary faced by gardaí in the 1930s when attempting to serve summonses on some islanders for refusal to pay rates.
The local sheriff, PJ McQuaid, discovered he could not obtain any local boats to assist him in seizing livestock from the islands. One of his collectors reported that livestock that was brought over from the islands was mixed with livestock on the mainland so there was no way for the collector to identify who owned which animal.
At one juncture he declared that nothing less than a gunboat would be of any use for a raid on the islands. That scenario did unfold in West Cork 50 years earlier.
The Fergus Estuary islanders claimed that their land was valued at too high a rate and appealed for lower valuations. Clare County Council rejected the appeal and the islanders continued to live in their "debtors’ paradise", according to a newspaper report. Another report stated some islanders used the rates’ bills as wallpaper. Then came a report that the council had given up and adopted a position of "masterly inactivity".
One correspondent was informed that visitors to the islands were watched with suspicion. Clergy and vets were welcome, but others were "watched". When half of the 5km journey was complete, the visitor, if a stranger, was asked point blank to state his business.
“You must then place all your cards face upwards on the seat of the boat and, if the boatmen are satisfied that you have not the ‘joker’ up your sleeve, the crossing will be completed. If the boatmen are suspicious of your credentials, they act on the principle that it is better to be sure than sorry, and back again you go to Kildysart Pier.”
In the late 17th century, the island was used as a hunting ground by Henry, 7th Earl of Thomond, and it is likely from this period that the current name was attached. Many years before that, in the 6th century, St Senan built an oratory on the island.
- How to get there: No ferry, but ask at the pier near Ballynacally, Co Clare. Or kayak.
- Other: 'The Islands of the Fergus Estuary', Jackie Elger and Dolores Meaney, Cat Beag Books.
