I think the experiment lasted about a year. My uncles tell of them being cold and hungry a lot of the time. My family still remember them and indeed, I bumped into one of them last year in Matt Malloy's in Westport.
When Lennon owned it (in 1970 in fact) he let a group of hippies set up a commune on the island. But it can be the bleakest of places as well. Of course, when the sun is shining, there's nothing like a day out on the island.
I've often reflected that it must have been a very tough existence. The area of water behind the island is charted as Dorinish harbour, which speaks of the shelter afforded from the prevailing westerlies by the island. They kept animals on the island and burnt driftwood and traded turf for ballast from the gravel bank that connects the north and south ends of the island with boats coming out from Achill (the largest Island in Clew Bay). The way I was told, it was the pilots island where you would pick up a person with local knowledge who would steer your ship through the channel to the busy harbour at Westport. One of the hugely frustrating things about the West of Ireland is that there seems to be a great deal of history that remains untold and the story of the islanders of Clew Bay is one of many such stories. It was inhabited once, and still has a lot of visible ground works as well as the remains of a stone built pier on the northern most islet. Tiny Dorinish is about 19 acres all told. It's the most westerly of the reputed 365 small islands of Clew Bay the much larger and still inhabited Clare Island guards the mouth of the bay. The tiny island is one of the most special places in my life as my uncles bought it from John Lennon (of all people) in 1984. My friend Siobhan Kelly at the oratory on top of Croagh Patrick after an exhausting climb. Patrick stayed for forty days and nights in the fifth century. Dotted with small islands, it is over-looked by the sentinel-like Croagh Patrick (Irish: Cruach Phadraig), the pyramidal mountain where St. Clew Bay has been immortalised in many a song and has featured on the television not infrequently as it is, without doubt, one of the most beautiful places in the world. It is an island in Clew Bay on the West coast of Ireland. It is thought the islands, which look like apples floating in the water, could have given rise to this connection.In which I wax lyrical about Murrisk, Clew Bay and all things Mayo, and tell you a story about my connection to John Lennon, The Beatles, and an uninhabited Island in the Atlantic ocean.ĭorinish (Irish: Deoirinis, pron: door-wrench) is a place which is very close to my heart. This name could come from the translation of the Irish word for apples, ubhall or ull. According to legend, the ancient name for West Mayo ‘Umhall’ is related to the islands of Clew Bay. Her fleet of ships sailed across the bay displaying the flag with the Motto of the O’Malley Clan: “Terra Marique Putens”, “ Valiant by sea and land”. On the bay’s shore Grace O’Malley, the Pirate Queen, had her principal stronghold: Rockfleet Castle. The vibrant town of Westport, designated one of Bord Failte's Heritage Towns, is situated in the shadow of Croagh Patrick, overlooking Clew Bay.Ĭlew Bay was the focus of the O’Malley family possession in the Middle Ages. On the bay pittoresque villages are nestled: Louisburgh, Murrisk and Mulranny, gateway to Achill Island. The most amazing view of Clew Bay is from the climbing path of Ireland's famous ‘Holy Mountain' Croagh Patrick, also known as “The Reek”. About this little island Yoko Ono said: "a place where we thought we could escape the pressures and spend some undisturbed time together”. John Lennon owned and stayed on Dorinish Island, a remote island in Clew Bay, which he planned to turn into a hideaway retreat. Clare Island, the biggest island, guards the entrance of the bay. The bay has 365 islands, one for every day of the year 117 of them are Ireland's best example of drumlins of limestone, which come up in all shapes: ovals, lozenges, snakes, dragons, arrowheads or long-legged beasties. Clew Bay (in Irish: Cuan Mó), overlooked by Croagh Patrick to the south and the Nephin Range mountains of North Mayo, is the most spectacular bay in Ireland.
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