On one of Europe’s westernmost points, a few dozen islanders lived precariously on fish, potatoes and milk. The nearest priest was a difficult three-hour boat journey away, and they had a complicated but intense relationship with their Catholic faith

The death of a young man because the weather conditions had made it impossible for him to get medical attention prompted the evacuation of the last 22 inhabitants of the Great Blasket in 1953. The island is part of an archipelago off the south-west coast of Ireland. Since its evacuation, the Great Blasket has been uninhabited but it remains a major source of interest for those fascinated by a remote way of life recorded in an extraordinary series of books in the Irish language written in the early decades of the twentieth century, including The Islander by Thomas O’Crohan, Twenty Years a-Growing by Maurice O’Sullivan and Peig by Peig Sayers.

Since there was no priest living on the island, burials of islanders took place on the mainland, a three-mile journey across the sea in a naomhóg or currach. Because of the extreme weather conditions at the time of his death the islandmen were almost forced to bury the young man on un-consecrated ground on the island. Not just burials but virtually all the sacraments took place on the Kerry mainland. Babies were taken to Ballyferriter for baptism. People rarely went to Dunquin for confession: instead, once a year during the “stations”, the priest would celebrate Mass on the island and hear confessions. Only the men went to Sunday Mass on the mainland; the women and children remained on the island to say the rosary.