A new TG4 series is giving a unique insight into the ways island life, featuring the realities of sea travel for living, education, and work on Oileán Chléire and Inis Arcáin (Cape Clear and Sherkin Island). The lives of those living and working on Árainn Mhór and Inis Mhic an Doirn in County Donegal, and Inis Bó Finne, Inis Oírr, and Inis Mór in County Galway are aso included in the show.
Ó Mhuir Go Tír is a four-part documentary series, beginning next week, that shows the modes of travel used by sea to link the islands off Ireland to the mainland, from the 1950s to the present day.
The first episode, to be aired on Wednesday October 15th, features former shopkeeper and Sherkin Islander, Maureen O’Neill, who tells of the trials and tribulations of running an island shop.
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Future episodes follow Sherkin pupils making the 10-minute journey to the mainland for school each day, as well as the heartbreaking stories of islanders who had to leave their island homes at 12 years of age for boarding school on the mainland in the 1970s and 1980s.
Cape Clear residents Róisín Ní Chonaill and Niamh Ní Dhrisceoil also feature, as do former pupils, teachers, and boatmen of the island’s Irish college.
On Cape Clear too, the McCann family reunite for a June bank holiday weekend, as parents Kevin and Jude share what life was like when they first moved from Liverpool to the island in the 90s.
From balancing cars on half-deckers, mothers and newborn babies being rowed home in currachs, to food supplies arriving in punts and yawls, and kids being ferried to attend school on the mainland: life is never easy for these islanders.
This documentary series, as gaeilge, tells of treacherous journeys and weird and wonderful cargo crossings.
Viewers will also see how technology has changed these journeys and, with the introduction of modern, purpose-built ferries, how life has improved for islanders.
