At this time of year, the roads on the mainland opposite are flanked by battalions of brightly coloured flowers.

On the island, the 60 acres of once-worked land had been divided into fields by banks of soil.

Now slumped, these banks are covered in old bleached grasses gone to seed interspersed with a few shy wildflowers.

The remaining few sheep and a few donkeys roam freely over the land and unsurfaced green paths.

The sparse vegetation makes the island perfect for rambling.

There are no trees. Apparently, a poster of a tree hung on the wall of the school (which was open from 1864 to 1941) for the information of pupils who had never seen one in real life.

This snippet of information was shared with us by an Office of Public Works guide named Louise. Most of the island is now managed by the OPW and, during the summer, there are guided tours for visitors which, depending on the weather, can number up to a few hundred.

The island is stunningly beautiful in an understated way. But the main interest in the Blaskets arises out of its remarkable literary output from the 1920s onwards, with other famous books including Tomas Criomhthain's An t-Oileanach and Muiris Silleabhin's Fiche Blian ag Fs.

In reality, the residents' lives at the time were possibly no tougher than those on the mainland but, for whatever reasons, theirs were the stories which got told.

Admittedly, much of the interest was a linguistic one, in that the Irish spoken there was largely unchanged down through the centuries.

But, even in English, I have discovered that there is appeal to at least some of the writing.

I started reading The Islander but it wasn't my cup of tea. However, I loved Twenty Years A-Growing. O'Sullivan's simple description of life growing up on the island is full of energy, wonder and joy.

Obviously, the experiences of a young man starting out in life are going to be very different from a woman nearing the end of hers. But I can't help wondering if many people would have a different view of Irish if this was the book we'd studied for the Leaving, instead of Peig!

Excerpt from:

Opinion: Why there's more to the Blasket Islands then Peig Sayers - Independent.ie