Seabirds which never frequented the coast of the mainland were abundant there, and they are still to be found, though not in such numbers since their food supply decreased. The long-tailed field mouse and the pygmy shrew were the commonest of all species on the Island. Yet it is a miracle of sorts that none of the following species is recorded on the Island: the weasel, frog, or hare neither was the fox or the rat, the hedgehog, badger or newt. The Blasket is, and always was, teeming with rabbits. Osiers fit for basketmaking do not grow there, and as a consequence the Islanders had to travel to the mainland, sometimes as far east as Abhainn an Scáil (Annascaul) and Ínse (Inch), to get a supply in season for making their lobster pots. The soil around the village is sandy, about 60 acres of it arable land a little valley or cleft runs through the village to the sea, and ivy, holly and goat willow grow there, twisted and weathered by storms. Turf, at a depth of one sod below the stripped surface, was usually cut with a spade. The Great Blasket is coated on top with a covering of furze, whins and heather, with peat (or bog or turf) beneath much of it. Robin Flower has suggested that it originates from the Norse word "brasker", meaning "a dangerous place." FLORA & FAUNA / Míolra agus Fásra Blascaod/Blasket has all the characteristics and resonances of a foreign borrowing. In the 14th and 15th Centuries the names "brasch", "brascher" and "blaset" are recorded on contemporary Italian maps in 1589 a variant form of these names, "Blasket Isles", appears for the first time. No one knows when or who first gave it that name. He was hanged at Cnocán na gCaorach in Killarney in 1653, after he and his followers were defeated at Ross Castle nearby. The last of the Ferriters to control the Blaskets was the poet and rebel chieftain, Captain Piaras Feirtéar. The same school was closed down in 1852 after the ravages of the Great Famine. There are no physical remains of that castle because the stones were carried off to build the Protestant soup-school in 1840.
They retained a castle there, at Rinn an Chaisleáin (Castle Point) in the lower village. From the end of the 13th Century the Ferriter family leased the Islands from the Earls of Desmond, and from Sir Richard Boyle after the dispossession of the Desmond Geraldines at the end of the 16th Century.
In the past the whole group of Islands was referred to as Ferriter's Islands. The Blasket Islanders themselves referred to the other Islands as the Lesser Blaskets. Locally, the Great Blasket was called simply the Island, or more formally, the Western (or Great) Island. Even the most casual of observers will notice that the Islands and mainland were once one, perhaps a few million years ago the experts confirm this impression. The Blaskets are and have always been an intrinsic part of the parish of Dún Chaoin. He was known for his work in Irish lexicography and his poetry and novels won him several awards, including the Oireachtas prize in 1982 for his novel "Ó Thuaidh!" The copyright is held by the Government of Ireland and the material is used with the permission of Ionad an Bhlascaoid Mhóir / The Blasket Centre, Dún Chaoin, Co. This article and its accompanying photographs are taken from the booklet "Na Blascaodaí / The Blaskets", written by Pádraig Ua Maoileoin, who was born in Dunquin in 1913 and died in 2002.
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