Island Home:

the Blasket heritage

Plot

The Blasket Islands off the west coast of Kerry produced some of the richest literature in 20th century Ireland -- books translated from the Irish such as The Islandman, Twenty Years a Grown', A Pity Youth Does not Last and Peig: An Old Woman's Reflections. Taken together, they give us a comprehensive and intimate picture of the life of the islanders.George Thompson's account explores how the Blaskets and their inhabitants came to make so distinguished a contribution to contemporary literature. He writes of life on the Blaskets before the Famine and after; of the art of storytelling; of particular literary forms such as the prose poem and the Aisling, of town and country, and of buying and selling.