Imagine being on your own on a Blasket island, dependent on several divers to come and collect you – and then their dinghy runs out of fuel.
If a fishing vessel hadn’t spotted the reflection of a mirror they had tied to the top of an oar, the divers and artist Maria Simonds-Gooding might not be here to tell the tale.
Not only that, but a particular encounter after they were all brought ashore would change her life.
Etching of Inis Mhic Oileáin by Maria Simonds-Gooding
In her latest interview for Wavelengths, Simonds-Gooding recounts her experiences of living on the edge of the Kerry coast.
She also has some interesting observations on how Blasket islanders adjusted when they moved to the mainland after the government evacuated them in November 1953.
She first recalled that first visit to Inis Mhic Oileáin, where she had no means of communication as she waited for that lift back to the mainland.
Listen to Wavelengths below
