New book looks at history of Omey island

Omey Island, that small tidal island lying to the south of Claddaghduff in North West Connemara, has always held a magical attraction for local residents and visitors alike.

Understandably so, because it’s a beautiful island, accessible by foot or car from half-tide to half-tide, covered in wild flowers during the spring and summer, and with history and more than a hint of mystery about it at all times of the year.

In her new book on Omey, Dr Heather Greer explores the origins of Omey as an island – its native rock types, dominated by the 422 million years old Omey granite (among the oldest in Connemara) and by much older Dalradian psammite rock peppering the west and south of the island, dating from around 750 million years ago.

When you consider that the Atlantic Ocean only began to form, brought about by the drift of continents around 140 million years ago, that is old indeed!

Heather also draws on cutting edge research conducted in Trinity College Dublin and elsewhere, to speculate on just when Omey actually became an island.

That was around 5,000 to 5,500 years ago, when the melting glaciers from the last major Ice Age melted and the sea rose.

There were probably humans around even back then, maybe witnessing the tides meeting for the very first time, during bad weather or of a full moon, to create what author and cartographer Tim Robinson refers to as a ‘sometime island’.

Some few thousands of years before that, the land that was Omey was far inland, covered no doubt – as was the whole of Connemara – by great hardwood forests of oak and elm, animals such as wild boar living within the undergrowth

Omey Island: A Geological and Human History has been a real labour of love for Heather for the past six or seven years and more.

The book is the result of a vast amount of research – going through the old annals; historical works on the area; PhD and other academic papers addressing aspects of Omey; and discussions and conversations with scholars and with local people originating from Omey (and their descendants in Ireland or the US).

The result is a 176-page book in three parts, with lots of illustrations and photos taken by Heather herself – producing an accessible and highly readable work but packed with information.

In fact, much of the information in the book has never before been made available to the reading public, and some was in grave danger of being lost forever – one of Heather’s key motivations in producing the book.

Part one of Heather’s book explores the geological formation of Omey, including research on the flying-saucer shaped granite ‘pluton that now forms most of Omey and the outer end of the Aughrus Peninsula.

That rock was formed when a tectonic plate moved under its neighbour when two supercontinents collided.  Magma was intruded into the home rock, some 8 km below the surface.  Being so deep, it cooled only slowly, permitting the formation of a coarse crystalline structure typical of granite.

Although the focus of this is upon the Omey area, of necessity it also covers the geological formation of Connemara itself, so that the book will be informative not alone of Omey but also of this western region of county Galway.

Part Two covers the human habitation of Omey Island, the first of whom were immigrants originating in England and the European continent.

Following the early medieval monastic period on Omey, Heather examines the evidence to conclude that Omey very likely became a base – albeit temporary – for Viking seamen heading south or north along the west coast of Ireland.

Later, following a probable revival of monasticism on Omey and other nearby islands, there was an early wave of pilgrims visiting the holy well there – Tobar Feichín – and staying in the houses of hospitality run by successive members of the Tuathaill (O’Toole) family on the island.

Heather also documents the changing ownership of the five main townlands that form Omey Island, from about 1,150AD to the present day.

That period of a thousand years embraces a still-vibrant monastic life; a late-medieval period, dominated by the O’Flahertys and O’Tooles (and, later, the O’Malleys of Grace O’Malley fame); and the long period from the 1500s to the mid-seventeenth century when successive English monarchs attempted to subdue the last of the ‘wild Irish’ and their old ways:  a task finished decisively by Oliver Cromwell.

Then, right through the 19th century, there was the time of famine and emigration, when Omey and Ireland suffered, both by the push of poverty but the pull of a better life.

Later, reform of the land laws also saw changes on Omey, resulting in much of the lands being divided into commonages, shares in which were divided between from four to eight local land-workers.

And the final section examines the ecological and human threats facing Omey Island today, speculating on the eventual demise of Omey.  Heather says that the major source of freshwater on Omey – Fahy Lake, or Lough Feichín as it once was called – is likely to be inundated in a matter of decades.

Within 200 years, it will probably be all over for Omey, perhaps other than a few rocky islets protruding from a much higher ocean. But that’s the future and this reflects on a glorious past; it is a book for anyone who loves Connemara in general – or Omey Island in particular.

■ Omey Island: A Geological and Human History, by Heather Greer is available in local shops on the Aughrus Peninsula, or at the Clifden Bookshop and All Things Connemara in Clifden – or online via ConnemaraDoorstep.com