Stephen, the B&B proprietor's son, talked to me about "blow-in's," people who come to visit Dingle and end up staying. I told him I might be a "blow-back-in." The population is only 1,828; just about the right size for me.
Writing yesterday, I omitted having learned about an island off the far western tip of the peninsula, Great Blasket Island, which was a completely Gaelic-speaking island for 300 years until, having dwindled to twenty residents, they were forced to evacuate in 1953. What has made the residents' story so compelling is that a half-dozen or so Blasket Islanders became writers. Scholars visited the hardscrabble island to study the language and to meet these native writers. Ultimately, much of their work, largely autobiographical, some letters, were translated into English and are available now in print. Standing within sight of the island, a remarkable center has been built in homage to its former residents and to the Irish language.
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