| It may not be as well known as its neighbouring islands of Aran, but Inishbofin,
which lies seven miles off the Galway coast, is one of Ireland's most thriving and
beautiful offshore islands. A 40-minute ferry-journey from the north Connemara fishing village of Cleggan, Inishbofin is a physical gem and a favoured spot among botanists, geologists and environmentalists, mainly due to its huge diversity of natural life. But Inishbofin is also very much a living, thriving island community, home to 214 people, a population five times less than lived there 100 years ago,, but healthy because, after years of decline, the population is beginning to increase, with the current figures up by 14 per cent since 1991, according to the Island Development Committee. Like many parts of the west, Bofin has been affected by mass emigration and lack of indigenous employment, but its current resurgence is all the greater because of the extra problems it has faced. |
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| As an island community, people were and remain - remote from services and supplies
which most of us take for granted, such as secondary schooling, building materials and
fuel, while, as Galway's only non-lrish-speaking island, it hasn't received government
grant aid on the scale of Aran. However, in the past decade, the island's decline has been reversed, largely due to a series of initiatives established by locals, which involve job development, tackling the major problem of coastal erosion and adopting a more co-ordinated approach to developing Bofin's tourist industry. Now many young people have opted to remain on the island, and, with more than 40 children under the age of 12, there's an increased vibrancy, which is especially important in the winter when the visitors have all gone. |
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| Inishbofin's tourist season begins in April and lasts until October.
For certain people the island has always acted as a magnet among those who've spent time
there include poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, Cecil Day Lewis, Louis McNiece, and Nobel
prize winners Joseph Brodsky and Seamus Heaney. American
poet Theodore Roethke lived there for a period. So, too, did Irish writers such as Richard
Murphy and Tom McIntyre. Today, the island continues to attract writers, artists and
particularly musicians, who come for sessions with the island ceílí band - an unusual
outfit for such a small population. |
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| Divers are drawn to Bofin by the clear water and rich sea like but, for
the most part, the island is about family holidays, and one extraordinary aspect of its
tourism is the return business - some people have been visiting for up to 50 years, from a
time when it was a good deal less accessible than today. To fully appreciate Bofin, a visitor must like walking. And, despite its smallness, the island has a landscape for every temperament: the west quarter being rocky, wild and boggy by turn and the east part containing long beaches of white sand, and some of the clearest water off Ireland. |
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