Donal Hickey: Are the Blasket Islands worth including as a Unesco World Heritage Site?
Ireland currently has two Office of Public Works (OPW)-managed world heritage sites: Brú na Boinne, County Meath, and Skellig Michael but the Blasket Islands are not officially listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site
Calls have again been made for the designation of the Blasket islands, in Kerry, as a Unesco World Heritage Site. So far, the islands, one of which was the holiday retreat of ex-taoiseach Charlie Haughey, have failed to be included in lists submitted to Unesco by the Government.
A proposal for inclusion was made by supporters of the Blasket case, more than a decade ago — and Micheál de Mordha, former director of the Blasket Centre, Dunquin, and a leading Blasket historian, now says it should be reconsidered.
“I don’t think the proposal received enough priority at the time," he said.
“Skellig Michael, on one side of Dingle Bay, has world heritage status and it would be entirely appropriate to extend this to the Blasket group of islands on the other side of the bay."
We currently have two Office of Public Works (OPW)-managed world heritage sites: Brú na Boinne, County Meath, and Skellig Michael.
Two years ago, three more were selected for consideration by the World Heritage Expert Advisory Group and placed on a new tentative list for Ireland: Passage Tomb Landscape, County Sligo; the Valentia Transatlantic Cable Connection, County Kerry, and the collective Royal Sites of Ireland spread across several counties.
Responding to a query, an OPW spokesperson said to be included on the UNESCO World Heritage List, a site must be of “outstanding universal value” and meet one of 10 criteria.
“Many sites of immense national and international significance do not meet the requirements for inclusion on the Unesco list," the spokesperson explained, adding that the OPW will continue to work to determine if the Great Blasket Island is suitable for the next tentative list.
There have been previous proposals to make the Great Blasket a national historic park and, several years ago, the Government committed €6m for a new pier on the island. However, the OPW now says it does not meet criteria for a national park. A new pier has yet to be provided.
Criteria for world heritage status are extremely strict, but a personal view is that the Blaskets might qualify on one: an applicant has “to bear a unique, or at least exceptional, testimony to a cultural tradition, or civilisation, which is living, or which has disappeared".
Abandoned in 1954, the ruggedly beautiful Great Blasket is famous for its prolific literary tradition based on the lives of the islanders.
