The Last Blasket King by Gerald Hayes Eliza Kane

Author:Gerald Hayes, Eliza Kane [Gerald Hayes, Eliza Kane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Royalty, General, Historical, Cultural; Ethnic & Regional, Personal Memoirs, History, Europe, Great Britain, Modern
ISBN: 9781848898875
Google: owiWDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Gill & Macmillan Ltd
Published: 2015-04-20T02:51:15+00:00

Norwegian visitor to the Great Blasket, Carl Marstrander (photo taken long after his Blasket visit).

During his extended visit to the Great Blasket, Marstrander stayed with the King in ‘the palace.’ Seán Ó Criomhthain describes the stay: ‘Yes, in the King’s house. He [Marstrander] and the King and the King’s son Seán, God be good to them, were great friends. He settled in on the Blasket and spent twenty-one weeks there speaking nothing whatsoever but Irish, but I was young then and didn’t take any interest in their conversations.’45

At first, Marstrander was not altogether pleased with his living accommodation in the King’s fairly sparse house. He asked the King to make a window for his windowless room and also reported rivulets of rainwater on the floor and mould accumulating on his clothing.46 The accommodation was particularly important to Marstrander because he took his Irish lessons from Tomás in this room. Repairs were in order47 and the King proceeded to upgrade the facilities accordingly.

In contrast to Synge, who was a bit of a loner during his earlier visit, Marstrander was fully engaged and quite popular on the island:

Marstrander cut a different figure from the solitary Synge … He soon came to be known as An Lochlannach, ‘the Viking’, a nick-name that conveyed both the affection and the admiration that the islanders felt for him. Island memory of him long after his departure is evident in a letter the king wrote to Flower in 1911, in which mention is made of an seomra Lochlannaigh [the Viking’s room] (the King’s bedroom) some three or four years after his only visit.48

The King’s long bilateral correspondence with Marstrander is clearly indicative of their feelings for each other. Tomás maintained a separate correspondence with Marstrander for a similar period of time. These friendships were genuine.

Marstrander was a very perceptive man and managed to put his finger one of the great paradoxes of life on the Great Blasket: ‘Their outward lives were miserable, yet perhaps – he simply couldn’t say for sure – they were happy. “The wet cliffs out there are their whole world. They have no longing for a richer life led under brighter conditions because they have never known anything better.”’49

That comfortable equilibrium was soon to change, however, as the islanders, through their interaction with visitors as well as from letters sent back to the island by relatives in America were to be exposed to a much higher quality of life beyond the island. By comparison, life on the island seemed sorely lacking in many ways.

Marstrander’s visit to the island was historically significant to the Great Blasket for a number of reasons: first, it involved an acknowledgement that the islanders had something of value to offer. According to Kanigel, ‘Marstrander lent them stature. They were fisherman? Yes, but something in how they lived was precious and rare.’ Secondly, it brought into focus the islanders’ expertise in the Irish language. ‘Blasket Irish, they came away half convinced, wasn’t just Irish, it was the best Irish, the purest.

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