Inishbofin (derived from the

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

''Inis Bó Finne'' meaning 'Island of the White Cow') is a small island off the coast of

Connemara Connemara (; )( ga, Conamara ) is a region on the Atlantic coast of western County Galway, in the west of Ireland. The area has a strong association with traditional Irish culture and contains much of the Connacht Irish-speaking Gaeltacht, ...

, County Galway,

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Inishbofin has around 180 inhabitants and is a tourist destination.

Name

The island's English name Inishbofin is derived from the Irish name ''Inis Bó Finne'' ('Island of the White Cow'). There are several legends concerning the origins of the island's name. According to one legend, the island was actually a floating place until some fishermen landed on it in a fog. By bringing fire onto the island, they dispelled the magic, fixing it in place. They then saw an old woman driving a white cow, which turned into a rock when the woman struck it with a stick. The Irish name has also been anglicised as 'Innisboffin' and 'Boffin' or 'Bophin' island.

Geology and topography

Inishbofin lies around off the Connemara coast opposite of

Ballinakill Ballinakill () is a small village in County Laois, Ireland on the R432 regional road between Abbeyleix, Ballyragget and Castlecomer, County Kilkenny. As of the 2016 census, there were 445 people living in Ballinakill. History From 1613 unti ...

Harbour and

Cleggan Bay Cleggan Bay ( ga, Cuan na Cloigeann) is a natural ocean bay in County Galway, Republic of Ireland. Geography Cleggan Bay is opened between Cleggan Head (on its north side) and Rossadilsk strand, in the Aughrus Peninsula (south). On the wester ...

. It is separated by a narrow channel from Inishark (Shark island). It is about long and wide. The highest point is in the Westquarter and rises to . Much of the island is a Special Area of Conservation (due to the presence of

corn crake The corn crake, corncrake or landrail (''Crex crex'') is a bird in the rail family. It breeds in Europe and Asia as far east as western China, and migrates to Africa for the Northern Hemisphere's winter. It is a medium-sized crake with buff- ...

s and seals). The island has no trees or forests whatsoever. Any wood was cut down and used as heating fuel. Because of the salt-enriched air, trees were never able to re-establish themselves.

History

It is not known when Inishbofin was first settled. There is no evidence of a Mesolithic, and only circumstantial evidence of a significant

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

presence. Although there are pre-historic field systems, their age has not been definitely established and could be anywhere between

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

and early

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments, found in significant numbers on the Connemara mainland, are conspicuous by their absence. Definite traces of human settlement are available only from the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

onwards, such as the remains of promontory ring forts like 'Dun Mor'. Around 665, Saint Colmán founded a monastery on Inishbofin. The island's ecclesiastical settlement was attacked by the

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and ...

in 795. According to some accounts, Guairim of Inisbofin was the ruler of the island when Colmán came here. The Annals of the Four Masters report the monastery's Abbots until the early 10th century (see below). The island belonged to the O'Flahertys until 1380, when the O'Malleys captured it. In the 16th century, according to local tradition, a Spanish

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

Barbary corsair The Barbary pirates, or Barbary corsairs or Ottoman corsairs, were Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa, based primarily in the ports of Salé, Rabat, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. This area was known in Europe as ...

named Alonzo Bosco built a stronghold on Port Island, where the Cromwellian fort stands today. According to the tales he raided the Irish coast and shipping in the area. "Don" Bosco was supposed to have been an ally of

Gráinne O'Malley Grace O'Malley ( – c. 1603), also known as Gráinne O'Malley ( ga, Gráinne Ní Mháille, ), was the head of the Ó Máille dynasty in the west of Ireland, and the daughter of Eóghan Dubhdara Ó Máille. In Irish folklore she is commonly k ...

, chieftain of the O'Malley clan and 'Ireland's pirate queen'. One story had them stretching a defensive iron chain across Inishbofin's harbour entrance to make it impassable to enemy ships. Across the harbour entrance from Port Island sits 'Dún Gráinne', the fort where Gráinne O'Malley supposedly lived. Eventually, Elizabethean forces took the island. In 1609, both Inishbofin and Inishark were the property of the Earl (or Marquis) of Clanricard (alternatively spelled

Clanricarde Clanricarde (; ), also known as Mac William Uachtar (Upper Mac William) or the Galway Burkes, were a fully Gaelicised branch of the Hiberno-Norman House of Burgh who were important landowners in Ireland from the 13th to the 20th centuries. T ...

or Clanrickard). The Marquis was of the de Burgo (Burke) family. Inishbofin Harbour

In the years of war following the Irish rebellion of 1641, the island was an important staging posts for arms deliveries to the Irish Catholic rebels and their allies, the

Royalists A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...

, from the

Duke of Lorraine The rulers of Lorraine have held different posts under different governments over different regions, since its creation as the kingdom of Lotharingia by the Treaty of Prüm, in 855. The first rulers of the newly established region were kings of ...

. The Royalists were supporters of King

Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. He was born into the House of Stuart as the second son of King James VI of Scotland, but after hi ...

in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

against the Parliamentarians. In August 1649, the Parliamentarian forces under

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...

had landed in Ireland and over the next few years conquered it. In early 1653, Cromwellian warships threatened to bombard the island and Inishbofin surrendered on 14 February to Sir John Reynolds. It was thus one of the last Royalist strongholds to fall to Cromwell's army. According to some accounts, after Galway had fallen in 1652,

Rory O'Moore Sir Rory O'Moore ( ga, Ruaidhrí Ó Mórdha) (c. 1600 – 16 February 1655), also known Sir Roger O'Moore or O'More or Sir Roger Moore, was an Irish landowner of ancient lineage, and is most notable for being one of the four principal organizer ...

, one of the initiators of the 1641 rebellion fled to Inishbofin, where he lived in a cave. After taking the island, the Parliamentary forces turned Inishbofin into a prison for Catholic priests arrested elsewhere in Ireland. Most of the star fort commanding the harbour dates from this period. It is known today as "Cromwell's Barracks" and was used, aside from its role as a prison, to protect the harbour against pirates and Dutch raiders (with whom

the Protectorate The Protectorate, officially the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, refers to the period from 16 December 1653 to 25 May 1659 during which England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and associated territories were joined together in the Co ...

was at war). At the time, a considerable fishery and

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...

activity was based on the island. In 1690, the fort was garrisoned during the

Williamite War in Ireland The Williamite War in Ireland (1688–1691; ga, Cogadh an Dá Rí, "war of the two kings"), was a conflict between Jacobite supporters of deposed monarch James II and Williamite supporters of his successor, William III. It is also called th ...

Jacobites Jacobite means follower of Jacob or James. Jacobite may refer to: Religion * Jacobites, followers of Saint Jacob Baradaeus (died 578). Churches in the Jacobite tradition and sometimes called Jacobite include: ** Syriac Orthodox Church, sometime ...

, supporters of King

James II of England James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...

. Commanded by one Colonel O'Riordan, they surrendered to King

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

's forces soon after the fall of Galway in 1691. In 1779, a British ship carrying officers and new recruits of the

84th Regiment of Foot The 84th (York and Lancaster) Regiment of Foot was a regiment in the British Army, raised in 1793. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 65th (2nd Yorkshire, North Riding) Regiment of Foot to form the York and Lancaster Regiment, wit ...

and the

King's Orange Rangers The King's Orange Rangers, also known as the Corps of King's Orange Rangers, were a British Loyalist battalion, raised in 1776 to defend British interests in Orange County, Province of New York and generally in and around the New York colony, al ...

, diverted from their planned course from Newfoundland to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

during the American War of Independence, was blown off course and wrecked at Inishbofin (Royal Oak Cove). 56 of the soldiers died, many of the survivors deserted and were hunted down by troops from Westport. Around 1830, Inishbofin passed from the possession of the Clanricards to the

Browne Browne is a variant of the English surname Brown, meaning "brown-haired" or "brown-skinned". It may sometimes be derived from French ''le Brun'' with similar meaning. The ''Mac an Bhreitheamhnaigh'' clan of County Donegal have anglicized as Browne s ...

family of Westport, descendants of the O'Malleys. In 1837, the island was in the Barony of Murrisk, County of Mayo, and Province of Connaught. It belonged to Howe Browne, 2nd Marquess of Sligo. Circa 1855, George Browne sold the island to

Henry William Wilberforce Henry William Wilberforce (22 September 1807 – 23 April 1873), was a Church of England clergyman, a Tractarian, a convert to the Roman Catholic Church, and thereafter a newspaper proprietor, editor and journalist Life Henry Wilberforce wa ...

. Cyril Allies, an English Catholic, bought it from Wilberforce in 1876, after having held it in mortgage since 1859. It was eventually acquired by the

Congested Districts Board for Ireland The Congested Districts Board for Ireland was established by The Rt. Hon. A.J. Balfour, P.C., M.P., the Chief Secretary, in 1891 to alleviate poverty and congested living conditions in the west and parts of the northwest of Ireland. William ...

(later known as the

Land Commission The Irish Land Commission was created by the British crown in 1843 to 'inquire into the occupation of the land in Ireland. The office of the commission was in Dublin Castle, and the records were, on its conclusion, deposited in the records tower t ...

). The exact date is not known, but negotiations were "well advanced" by 1910. As of 1 February 1873, Inishbofin (as in the Civil Parish of Inishbofin which included Inishark as well) was no longer legally part of County Mayo but had become a part of County Galway. this was a consequence of a severe localised famine in the winter of 1872/3 which necessitated relief be organised via the nearer Poor Law Union based in Clifden Workhouse rather than the previously responsible Poor Law Union based around Louisburgh Workhouse and in view of the particular concentration of distress in West Connemara and Inishbofin/Inishark.

Demographics

The table below reports data on Inishbofin's population taken from ''Discover the Islands of Ireland'' (Alex Ritsema, Collins Press, 1999) and the

Census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

of Ireland. Censuses in Ireland before 1841 are not considered complete and/or reliable. Dumhach Beach

The island's population has shrunk dramatically since pre-

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompani ...

times. In 1837, 1462 people lived on Inishbofin. By 1881, the number was down to 959. In 1990, there were around 200 inhabitants, the 2011 Census found just 160 inhabitants. Today, tourism is the island's main industry. There are three hotels and a hostel on the island. Inishbofin offers scuba diving, walking trails, cycling, horse riding, sailing, paddle boarding, kayaking, snorkelling, shore and sea angling.

Transport

Inishbofin can be reached by ferry from the pier in Cleggan. There is also a helipad, and an airstrip has been built on the island. However, despite the Inishbofin and Cleggan airfields costing almost EUR10 million to build and continuing to cost hundreds of thousands annually to maintain, neither airstrip is licensed for use and general aviation pilots are forbidden to land on them.

Culture and sports

The island features a football pitch and a community centre with an indoor sports hall. It also houses a small island library which provides a reference and local studies collection with information on the history and heritage of the area. Inishbofin hosted the 2008 All-Ireland Islands Football Tournament, and again in September 2017. The current Galway Senior Men's Football team goalkeeper, Ruairi Lavelle, hails from Inishbofin. Another islander, Michael Day, also made his debut in midfield for the Senior team in 2017.

Landmarks

* Cromwell's Barracks * St. Colmán's Cemetery (ruins of a 13th-century church at the site of the 7th century monastery) * Light on Gun Rock (built in 1909). It was "swept away" by a storm on 3 January 2014. * Dún Mór promontory ring fort * Dún Gráinne * The Stags seal colony

Literature

The short story "The Hungry Death", written by

Rosa Mulholland Rosa Mulholland, Lady Gilbert (1841 – 21 April 1921) was an Irish novelist, poet and playwright. Life She was born in Belfast, the daughter of Dr. Joseph Stevenson Mulholland of Newry. Originally, Mulholland wished to become a painter, ...

around 1880, is set in Inishbofin during the Great Famine. The story focuses on a love triangle before the backdrop of the famine and depicts the suffering and dying of the island population. It was republished in the collection ''The Art of the Glimpse: 100 Irish Short Stories'' (2020), edited by Sinéad Gleeson. Inishbofin was mentioned at some length by Irish artist and author

Robert Gibbings Robert John Gibbings (23 March 1889 – 19 January 1958) was an Irish artist and author who was most noted for his work as a wood engraver and sculptor, and for his books on travel and natural history.Martin J. Andrews, ''The Life and Work of R ...

, writing in 1946. He also referred in passing to some Inishbofin placenames that appear to be no longer extant, suggesting that the villages have now vanished. These include: Alladoon, Bunamullen, Cooltra, Mweelanbwee, Ooghnagunnel. Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney's poem "Seeing Things" begins with a boat ride to Inishbofin. "Inishbofin on a Sunday Morning. / Sunlight, turfsmoke, seagulls, boatslip, diesel". The island served as the setting for Deborah Tall's 1987 book, ''The Island of the White Cow''. Richard Murphy wrote several poems about his time on Inishbofin, best known perhaps is' Sailing to an Island'.

Inishbofin in the Annals

* 668 -

Colmán of Lindisfarne Colmán of Lindisfarne ( 605 – 18 February 675 AD) also known as Saint Colmán was Bishop of Lindisfarne from 661 until 664. Life Colman was a native of the west of Ireland and had received his education on Iona. He was probably a nobleman of ...

founds the monastery of Inis Bó Finne. * 675 - Death of Colmán of Lindisfarne on Inis Bó Finne * 711 - '' Baetan, Bishop of Inis Bo Finne, died.'' * 755 - '' Mael Turaig, abbot of Inis Bó Finne, rested.'' * 795 - ''The plundering of Í Coluim Chille, and of Inis Muiredaig, and of Inis Bó Finne.'' * 898 - '' Caenchomhrac, of the caves of Inis Bo Fine, died.'' * 809 - Blathmac of Inis Bó Finne, died. * 916 - Abbot Feardhach of Inis Bó Finne, died.

Gallery

File:Inishbofin Harbour2.jpg, Inishbofin harbour File:Inishbofin harbour2.jpg, Inishbofin harbour File:Inishbofin post office.jpg, Post office in 2016 File:Inishbofin houses.jpg, Houses on Inishbofin

References

External links

Inishbofin Island Website

{{Authority control Islands of County Galway