Shark Island

Inishark, a small Galway islet beside Inishbofin, lost its last twenty-three people on 20 October 1960 after winter isolation and fatal tragedies made continued life there unbearable. The clearance did not empty the island of meaning; it transferred its memory into the men and women who carried its losses onto the mainland. Bronze Age monuments, the church of Leo of Inis Airc and the name itself keep the place present in the minds of those who left it.