Inishark

File:MayoIslands.PNG]]

The island is now uninhabited; the last 23 inhabitants of this former isolated fishing and farming community were evacuated on 20 October 1960.{{Cite web

| last = Murphy

| first = Judy

| title = The Island that Died for Want of a Telephone

| work = The Free Library

| publisher = Farlex, Inc.

| url = http://www.thefreelibrary.com/THE+ISLAND+THAT+DIED+FOR+WANT+OF+A+TELEPHONE%3b+%281%29Close-knit+...-a0169335246

| access-date = 1 September 2010

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140221202108/http://www.thefreelibrary.com/403.htm

| archive-date = 21 February 2014

| url-status = live

}} The islanders had been unable to leave for months in winter and the government opted to resettle them on the mainland rather than build an expensive pier on the island.

Like Inishbofin, Inishark is composed almost entirely of Silurian slates and shales. It rises almost to {{convert|100|m|ft|abbr=out}} above sea level.{{cite web

| url = http://mountainviews.ie/summit/1382/

| title = Inishark Island

| author =

| website = MountainViews

| publisher = Ordnance Survey Ireland

| access-date = 21 February 2015

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150221193700/http://mountainviews.ie/summit/1382/

| archive-date = 21 February 2015

| url-status = live

}}

The documentary film Inis Airc, Bás Oileáin (Inishark, Death of an Island) produced in 2007 by C-Board Films for TG4, told the story of the last years and abandonment of Inishark. Produced and directed by Kieran Concannon, it featured interviews with surviving islanders and archive newsreel footage of the final evacuation.

In 2009, Boston College's Irish Studies program (in cooperation with Irish Film Institute) screened Inis Airc, Bás Oileáin (Inishark, Death of an Island) as part of the Irish Studies Film Series telling the evacuation story from the surviving islanders' viewpoint.

The island was occupied for thousands of years and has many Bronze Age sites such as burial grounds and monuments.

The name Inishark, Irish Inis Airc, may derive from an ancient chief or king named Erc; other writers connect the name with searc, "love" (Old Irish serc), or with Old Irish airc meaning "hardship" or "strait."{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_ZRnAAAAMAAJ&q=%22inishark%22+airc|title=Discover the Islands of Ireland|first=Alex|last=Ritsema|date=23 October 1999|publisher=Collins Press|isbn=9781898256670|via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.dil.ie/1659|title=eDIL - Irish Language Dictionary|website=www.dil.ie}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.dil.ie/37233|title=eDIL - Irish Language Dictionary|website=www.dil.ie}}

The island's patron saint was Leo of Inis Airc, who lived there sometime between the sixth and eighth centuries. The remains of a 19th-century church named after him lie on the island today.{{cite news

| first = Daryln

| last = Hoffstot

| title = Where Legends Outnumber People

| date = 1 August 1999

| work = The New York Times

| url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B00E5D7113EF932A3575BC0A96F958260&sec=travel&spon=&pagewanted=3

| access-date = 1 September 2010

}}

On Easter Sunday, 1949 three young islanders drowned travelling to Inishbofin for mass. Soon afterwards, during a period when the island was cut off due to bad weather, another young man died from appendicitis.{{Cite web|url=http://irishislands.info/bofin.html|title=Inishbofin - Inis Bó Finne|website=irishislands.info}} These incidents as well as emigration were contributing factors driving the clamour to evacuate the island, as by this point there were few young people remaining on it.

The table below reports data on Inishhark's population taken from Discover the Islands of Ireland (Alex Ritsema, Collins Press, 1999) and the Census of Ireland. Census data in Ireland before 1841 are not considered complete and/or reliable.

{{Historical populations

| align = none

| cols = 3

| footnote= Source: {{cite web

| url = http://www.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/Statire/SelectVarVal/Define.asp?Maintable=CNA17&Planguage=0

| title = CNA17: Population by Off Shore Island, Sex and Year

| author = Central Statistics Office

| website = CSO.ie

| access-date = 12 October 2016

}}

| 1841|208

| 1851|138

| 1861|181

| 1871|61

| 1881|207

| 1891|123

| 1901|129

| 1911|110

| 1926|72

| 1936|68

| 1946|67

| 1951|50

| 1956|33

| 1961|0

| 1966|0

| 1971|0

| 1979|0

| 1981|0

| 1986|0

| 1991|0

| 1996 |0

| 2002 |0

| 2006 |0

| 2011 |0

| 2016 |0

}}

{{Portal|Ireland|Islands}}

• Clare Island
• Caher Island, County Mayo
• Inishturk

{{Reflist}}

• {{Commons category-inline}}
• [http://www.inishbofin.com/death-of-inishark/ Inishark, Death of an Island]. Contemporary Daily Mirror story about the day the island was evacuated. 1960-10-27.
• [http://www.irishtimes.com/indepth/slideshows/inishshark/ The surviving residents of Inishark] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130306094200/http://www.irishtimes.com/indepth/slideshows/inishshark/ |date=6 March 2013 }}: Narrated documentary slideshow about Inishark and its surviving residents produced for the fiftieth anniversary of the evacuation of the island. Cyril Byrne. The Irish Times, 2010-10-20.{{dead link|date=November 2016}}
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmXb2sIFJuY Inis Airc: Bás Oileán – Youtube Video]
• [https://voxhiberionacum.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/inishark1/ vox hiberionacum - Early Irish Christianity and Early Medieval Ireland]

{{County Galway}}

Category:Islands of Connemara

Category:Uninhabited islands of Ireland

{{Galway-geo-stub}}