How I found Clare Island

I was taking a bus from Galway to Tuam, when a gaggle of school-uniformed kids crowded onto the bus. And someone had to sit next to this Broad Abroad.

His name was Jack Pinder. He was a freshman in high school, and we chatted all the way to Tuam. I told him I was meeting someone at a bus stop there who was distantly related to someone in Reno who had e mailed me and hoped we could meet up. He was heading home to Clare Island.

“You are adventurous,” he said. “And you should come and see my island.”

Clare Island is a 45-minute ferry ride from Westport, north of Galway. There are only about 150 people who live there full-time and because they don’t have enough kids for a school these days, when students hit middle school age, they go to school in Westport. They board the ferry on Monday, stay with host families in Westport for the week, going to school, and return home to Clare Island for the weekends.

Jack’s family runs the Community Center and Pub there. And cousins and other families, run the ferries, the youth hostel and the fisheries.

Of course, I had to go and see it for myself. There is a relic of a castle there, where the 16th century Pirate Queen, Grace O’Malley, once lived. And those who live there today are amazing, genuine people.

Check out Clare Island’s tapestry of people, in this episode of Erin’s Isle: https://www.erinsisle.org/podcasts/the-tapestry-of-clare-island