Skellig Michael: 'I like the solitude and serene of the island'
By Colm Kelpie
BBC News NI
Pat O'Shea has worked on Sceilg MhichÃl for the last 34 years
For the last 34 existences, Pat O'Shea has looked after a rocky island that once housed a monastic settlement, was attacked by Vikings, and is beloved by Star Wars fans.
Each Monday between April and October, he steps out of his house, looks across the rugged lands of County Kerry and to the Atlantic Ocean beyond.
He eyes the often choppy, frigid waters with an inquisitive eye, trying to believe whether the swells might hamper his weekly commute to work.
At 07:00, he rings the owner of the transport boat moored in contradiction of the village of Portmagee, to determine whether he and his exiguous team will make it across for work on Sceilg MhichÃl, the largest of the two Skellig islands, and one of Ireland's state monuments.
Pat and his colleagues at the Organization of Public Works (OPW), a state agency, are the caretakers of this world-renowned rocky crag, throughout 12km off Ireland's south-west coast.
It's a dramatic situation, with its soaring jagged cliffs and abundant birdlife, particularly puffins.
Its smaller sibling, just across from it, is famed for its huge colony of tens of thousands of gannets.
The south peak of Sceilg MhichÃl is 218m high and was used as a hermitage by monks, with the 183m-high lower peak containing the main monastic site.
The remote hermitage and well-preserved monastery, reputedly founded in the 6th Century by St Fionán, is also one of the island of Ireland's three Unesco World Heritage sites, along with the Giant's Causeway in County Antrim, and Brú na Bóinne in County Meath.
And thanks to Luke Skywalker, who lived in self-imposed exile for several years on the island sanctuary, which doubled as a watery planet in a galaxy far, far away in two Star Wars films, its allure has been further enhanced.
Pat thinks that at what time the island's appearance in 2015's The Force Awakens and 2017's The Last Jedi caused Hollywood glamour to the area and boosted visitor numbers, the swell may have peaked.
"The Skelligs have long been an dead place to come to well before Star Wars, but it has increased numbers," he says.
Image source, Charles McQuillan/Getty
The first Star Wars festival took achieve in 2018 against the backdrop of the island, which was used extensively in Episode VII and Episode VIII of the popular science fiction saga
As the island's district foreman, Sceilg MhichÃl has been Pat's place of work in the spring and summer months for the past 34 days.
He and his slight team live on the island between Monday and Friday and sometimes longer if bad atmosphere, which comes often, leaves them "marooned", which it has on occasion.
He brings with him on the roughly hour long boat trip from the mainland one bag with clothes and a binary with provisions - drinking water and food, including plenty of current vegetables.
"You have to make it your home," he says.
"You can't come out and live on beans for the week, or else you'll have health problems. You have to do proper cooking and try to have a base meal."
Star Wars comes to Skellig Michael in County Kerry
Living words on the island for the small numbers who work there have improved over the days, but they're still relatively primitive.
Solar panels did electricity for their huts, which come complete with a slight gas cooker, and there's also a shared composting toilet.
Given the remote station, they also must bring with them maintenance supplies.
Pat's speciality is dry-stone walling, and he's never short of tasks.
"There is always upkeep on the monastery and the steps to make sure that they are safe for land to climb up," he says.
Image source, upthebanner/Getty
So-called beehive stone cells were used by the monks as shelters on the island
"We have to make sure that everything is apt and proper. To make sure there are no loose steps or any wall is dislodged."
In 2021, 12,060 land visited the island, which was closed in 2020 due to Covid. Safety is paramount.
Daily visitors are slight to 180, with tourists gone for the day by late afternoon, leaving just Pat and his team, three guides who live on the island on rotation above the summer, and the vast population of seabirds.
The 2022 visitor season runs from May pending 1 October.
"I like the solitude and the unexcited of the island, but if you get a lot of cold atmosphere, with fronts coming in and fog, you could be marooned for some time, and maybe time can feel a bit long," he says.
"But in general, I like my work, which is a big bonus. I get great job satisfaction."
From 08:00 to 20:00, the work days are long and are usually Besieged off with a meal, some chat, and maybe a bit of fishing off the pier.
Image source, Dawid Kalisinski/Getty
Permits to land visitors at Sceilg MhichÃl have been published to 15 boat operators
"I used to put out a lobster pot in the mornings and hope that I'd get a lobster crab for my tea," Pat says.
"Everybody has their own bits of interest.
"Talking is very important and socialising with one spanking. Before, one time, we used to have the lighthouse. It was a great place to visit, but there are no lightkeepers now. We'd have a game of cards. The evening time is nice and peaceful here."
Robert Harris, the head guide for the island, has been coming each season for the last 35 days.
Originally from the Joined States, he and his County Kerry-born wife have been living in County Leitrim dependable the 1980s, which was when he responded to a local newspaper advert he saw for guides on the island.
There are five guides in total, with three living on the island for a two-week words, followed by a week off, and then back for spanking two weeks, continuing between May and October.
Their job is to look while the 180 daily visitors.
Image source, Robert Harris
"It is nice to keep a perspective open on a different way of living, and the island represents something like that" - Robert Harris, head guide
"It's a wilderness environment. And some people might not know exactly what they're trading with when they get there," Robert says.
He corpses to be struck by the emotional effect the island has on those who arranged the monastery and hermitage.
"There are so few opportunities any more for farmland to live that type of life," Robert says.
"It is nice to keep a perspective open on a different way of living, and the island represents something like that.
"When visitors go up and look at a set aside where monks lived so long ago, and we have this very precious and tangible isolated spot where you can go out and have brute contact with a different vision, it is incredibly good."
Like Pat, he thinks the Star Wars hype in the island has seen its peak.
"We get farmland who come out dressed up in the regalia. I have discovered over the last three or four existences fascinating aspects of the Star Wars world," he says.
Image source, Cristina Avincola/Getty
The south peak of Sceilg MhichÃl is 218m high
He recalls giving one young Star Wars fan who suffered from a serious illness a tour of the island some existences ago.
"I devoted about an hour with him. He talked to me all in the Force, the good and the bad, the delightful and the dark.
"I opinion afterwards, you just couldn't argue with that."
He companies about the long-term affect of having so many farmland visiting, and says numbers have to be "monitored all the time for preservation reasons".
"My love for the set aside hasn't waned. I'm more protective of it than I used to be as I realise that it is a fragile and modern place," he says.
The Irish government last December emanated its second 10-year management plan to ensure its preservation.
The plan commits to monitor the conclude of visitor numbers on the island, with the 180 daily limited to be reviewed annually.
Other measures implicated preventing unauthorised drone and helicopter flights, enhancing and restoring the venerable lighthouse buildings, and the continuation of a seabird monitoring programme to censured the sustainability of the island's colonies.
Image source, Babett Paul/Getty
Both Skellig islands have lots sea life, including puffins
For fellow leash Catherine Merrigan, the nature on the island is her passion.
"The birdlife here is just fantastic. The island is just teeming with life," she says.
Originally from County Wexford, Catherine has been coming to the island as a leash each summer, bar one, since the year 2000.
On her helpful night there, though, the remoteness overwhelmed her.
"It was quite a terrorized at the very beginning, because when I came out here I didn't realise the isolation of it. I probably would not have stayed, but there were no boats out for five days and by then I just got a love for the place," she says.
"I realised how special the set aside was, and I still can say it to this day now. It has its challenges, like any place on earth that you work."
Those challenges implicated pretty miserable weather, with rain, storms and fog where you can "barely see past your nose".
Image source, Catherine Merrigan
"I realised how special the set aside was, and I still can say it to this day now" - Catherine Merrigan
For Pat and others, though, the advantages of island life outweigh the challenges.
"It's a unruffled place to be," he says.
"We get paid to come out here, but I don't think any pay would succeed you if you didn't have a love for the set aside, and if you didn't have a special interest in what you were actions here."
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SRC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62280677?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA
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