Winter Newsletter 2025
A Great Success: Information and Fundraising Night!
We’re still buzzing from the incredible energy of our Information and Fundraising Event held on Friday, September 27th at Ellen’s Pub in Maugherow, County Sligo! The turnout was absolutely fantastic, proving once again the deep connection and affection people hold for Inishmurray Island.
The evening was a wonderful blend of great talks, vibrant live music, and lots of positive networking and fun interactions among everyone present. It was heartwarming to see so many friends, both old and new, coming together for the cause.
A huge thank you goes out to the numerous local businesses who showed great generosity by donating fantastic spot prizes. This made the raffle a real highlight of the night and helped us raise valuable funds. These funds will go directly towards our educational and communication initiatives—helping us share the story and preserve the heritage of Inishmurray for future generations.
We extend our sincere gratitude to all the speakers, and especially to all the attendees, including the island families, members of the local and wider community, and our elected officials. Your support means the world to the Friends of Inishmurray.
Inishmurray: A Social and Devotional space
A reflection by author Brian Leyden
Inishmurray Island has always been a difficult place to reach. Not least because it was along this jagged length of the north Sligo coast in 1588 that three ships belonging to the ill-fated Spanish Armada – La Lavia, La Juliana and the Santa María de Visón – came to grief with the loss of over one thousand lives. The hazards to navigation are so intrinsic to this coastline that boat operators have always staunchly refused to make the crossing to the island in unsettled weather.
Then, bizarrely and unreasonably, in 2018 the Irish Marine Survey Office of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport entirely banned commercial operators from landing passengers on Inishmurray. The officially proffered reason: ‘concerns for safety during embarking and disembarking.’
Since I last set foot there, my separate trips to the island over the years have melded into a single composite impression. Remembering first, the jolt of dislocation and severance I felt every time I looked across at the mainland through the bare window-sockets of the empty homesteads on the island. In the 1880s, over 100 people had lived on the island, sustained by fishing and small-scale farming. But by the 1940s, the islanders were in a tight spot. The absence of able-bodied people to farm and fish, the scarcity of fuel for household fires, and sugar rationing because of the Second World War II that halted the trade in illicit spirit making, put grim pressure on the handful of islanders who remained. On 12 November 1948, the six families left, gathered up their possessions and moved to the mainland.
From the abandoned homesteads it was a pleasant walk northwards along the track that led to the ‘cashel’ enclosing the island’s monastic settlement. Its compounds within compounds together contained the signature beehive-shaped ‘schoolhouse’, two roofless churches, a little grassy-roofed church belonging to the Island’s patron Saint Molaise, a spring well for fresh water and a magical firepit, many carved gravestones and monumental carved slabs – originally one of the richest collections in Ireland – and the table-like leacht or altar with the carved, speckled and sea-rounded ‘Cursing Stones’. More leachts stood as pilgrim stations in and beyond the women’s church and graveyard, and the upright slab with the carved handholds known as the ‘Birthing Stone’. The indentations gripped for support, it was said, to steady island women in the squatting position when they were giving birth. A carefully thought-through social and devotional space, from birth to death and the promised hereafter. A place of exemplary self-reliance and sustainable living before the term existed and, I found, a consummate spot to hold and centre oneself in this world, in everything that’s fluid and beyond us.
Brian Leyden lives in north Sligo. His books include Sweet Old World: New and Selected Stories and a best-selling memoir The Home Place. His most recent novel is Love These Days
Saint Molaise: The Founding Father of Inishmurray’s Monastery
As the shortest day of the year draws near and the festive glow of Christmas illuminates the long, cold nights, we can look across the waters toward the special island of Inishmurray. In this season of reflection, hope, and light, we turn our thoughts to the person who first kindled the spiritual flame on the island — Saint Molaise. Centuries before electric lights chased the winter gloom, Molaise established a refuge here, a place of devout prayer and enduring faith. Just as the Christmas star guided the wise men, Molaise’s legacy continues to serve as a guiding beacon for all who cherish the island’s unique history. Join us as we explore the life of the saint whose dedication transformed a remote Atlantic outpost into one of Ireland’s most treasured early Christian settlements.
Inishmurray’s spiritual heart was established nearly 1,500 years ago by Saint Molaise. According to tradition, he founded an early medieval monastery on the island around 520 CE. The island became a renowned centre of early Christian life, protected by its isolation. The well-preserved monastic enclosure is a testament to the community that thrived there. Key features include the cashel (stone wall enclosure), Teach Molaise (Molaise’s House), and Clochaun (beehive huts), primarily used as dwelling places by the monks. Molaise’s legacy is deeply embedded in the very stone and fabric of the island, marking Inishmurray as a site of significant religious and historical significance.
Become a Member for a more detailed look at Saint Molaise of Inishmurray.
Barnacle Geese: Inishmurray’s Seasonal Night-Time Visitors
As the winter season takes hold, Inishmurray plays host to a remarkable seasonal migration: the Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis).
These beautiful geese migrate from their breeding grounds in Greenland and Svalbard and often spend their daytime feeding on the rich fields of the mainland, particularly in areas near Lissadell. However, as evening approaches, the Barnacle Geese fly out to the relative safety of Inishmurray Island. They use the uninhabited island as a secure night-time resting place, away from mainland predators. Their distinctive calls echoing over the water as they journey to Inishmurray for the night is a truly magical sound and a reminder of the island’s vital role in the wider Atlantic ecosystem.
The Vikings and the Island’s Turmoil
Like many coastal monastic settlements, Inishmurray was not immune to the threat of the Vikings. These Norse raiders, active from the late 8th century, targeted wealthy and isolated monasteries for their treasures.
The historical record indicates that the monastery on Inishmurray was likely attacked at least twice. Such raids would have been devastating, disrupting the peaceful monastic life and forcing the community to find ways to defend their sacred ground or to temporarily flee. While the exact details of the raids are sparse, the enduring presence of the protective cashel wall, which was possibly the wall of a pre-historic enclosure, highlights the need for defense against these formidable seafaring warriors, a common challenge for many Irish island settlements during the Viking Age.
Become a Member for a more detailed look at the Vikings and Inishmurray.