Friday, March 2, 2012

A life on the rocks

It may be home to a hugely popular rock music festival as well asa vast range of sea life, but Rathlin is a working island, not a day-trippers' theme park, the residents tell Mary Russell

The list of some 40 wrecks surrounding the rocky promontories ofRathlin - Northern Ireland's only inhabited island - reads like acatalogue of seafaring history. In 1794, the Thomas, sailing fromCork to St Kitts in the Caribbean, hit the rocks. In 1815, theCumberland, bringing rum, coffee and pimento from Jamaica toGreenock, came a cropper. Fifty years on, a vessel taking sugar toNewfoundland sank, and during the two world wars, numerous boatscarrying cargo, munitions and troops were torpedoed.

But perhaps the most famous of the recent casualties was RichardBranson, whose transatlantic journey, by balloon, ended unexpectedlyin the sea off Rathlin, in 1987. In gratitude, he gavepound(s)25,000 to the islanders for rescuing him.

Part of the money went toward restoring the striking GeorgianManor House which the islanders planned on turning into a much-needed 12-bed guest house. The plan foundered and the NorthernIreland National Trust stepped in, bought the property, paid off theoutstanding debt and now, 10 years on, is set to hand over to thenew leaseholders.

The reopening of the Manor House is good news, though not, by along chalk, the only good thing that has happened on Rathlin. TheNational Trust has also leased out workshops at the back of theManor House which provide training for islanders in ceramics andsilversmithing. Irish language classes are on offer, as is internetaccess.

A writing group has recently formed, the film club is wellattended, the phenomenally successful Jigs and Reels music festivalis now in its fourth year. The Ballycastle Writers Group makes the45-minute crossing from the mainland every September to host itsannual weekend on Rathlin. Not bad for an island whose population,since the Famine, has fallen from 1,200 to the current 80.

I was last on Rathlin a few years ago, during a fuschia-heavyheatwave, but this time the little ferry rocks and bucks its waythrough the waves, with the rain driving in from the Atlantic inregular squalls.

Ten minutes after arriving, I am sitting by a blazing fire inMargaret McQuilkin's B&B drinking tea and chatting to Loughie, her82-year-old father. Loughie, who retired 15 years ago from his jobas a coastguard, recalls going to school in his bare feet,collecting firewood for the schoolroom fire, loading kelp onto boatsheaded for Glasgow (there to be made into iodine and soap), as wellas helping with the 12 horses that used to be on the island. (Thefirst tractor, a Ford Ferguson, arrived in 1946.)

The McQuilkin B&B is one of only two on Rathlin, and there is alot of talk about how many visitors an island nine miles long andone wide can accommodate.

"This is a working island, not a day- trippers' theme park," saysAlison McFaul, "and our aim is to maintain a good quality of lifeboth for residents and for visitors, as well as maintaining theisland environment."

McFaul is a representative of the Royal Society for theProtection of Birds (RSPB) on Rathlin and, together with her husbandLiam - RSPB warden and the only man on the island still making aliving from fishing - runs the Camping Barn, a reconstructedtraditional dwelling house with bunk beds, a communal kitchen andcamping space for tents nearby.

Rathlin is home to one of the most extensive ranges of sea lifein this part of Europe, with birds, dolphins and seals dropping inregularly. Every summer, RSPB volunteers pitch up at the CampingBarn with binoculars and telescopes, ready to help visitorsrecognise the huge numbers of kittiwakes, guillemots and puffins wholeave their watery, mid-ocean homes to nest on Rathlin's cliffs bythe West Lighthouse where they give birth to their young.

The views from the cliffs are awesome. Look one way and you seeDonegal, the other the peninsula of Kintyre.

"We support the island because of its unique heritage," says JohnBaird, one of the National Trust's regional officers for NorthernIreland. As well as porcellinite axes dating from 2000 BC which werefound on the island, there are standing stones, Robert the Bruce'sCastle, famine dwellings and three nature trails. "The way forwardlies in environmental tourism," says Baird.

Though many look on this as a time of regeneration for the sturdyisland, all is not plain sailing. There is no recycling bank on theisland - a major problem, especially during the summer months whenup to 250 visitors may arrive on one day. A writer's chair, donatedby the Ballycastle Writers Group - made of polished granite andinscribed with a quote from Seamus Heaney - has caused mystificationamong some islanders, who would like to have had an input into itsdesign. And no one now wants to talk about the era, 10 years ago,when there were two educational establishments - a Catholic schooland a non-denominational educational unit, both serving four pupilseach.

That divisive situation was finally resolved and now there isjust one - St Mary's primary school - catering for the threechildren of primary-school age on the island.

Brian McCaughan is the head teacher, travelling over fromBallycastle every day (his wife and their five children live there),arriving by high-speed sea taxi but returning by the less expensiveferry. The three scholars - Shannon Cecil (10) and Connor (nine) andOwen (five) McCurdy - have their own school uniform and an extensivearray of educational websites to source their projects. This summerShannon moves on, and though one new child will enrol, hopes ofbuilding up the school population are low: it is one of the socialproblems of Rathlin that there is no affordable housing on theisland which young couples can buy or rent - the reason many havehad to leave.

"We've got some new houses but they cost pound(s)100,000 andthat's way beyond my means," says Jonathan Mitchell, father of asmall baby, who left the madness of mainland city life to set up hisown computer business on Rathlin. He's an enthusiastic member of theRathlin Island Co-op, pointing up in particular, the annual weekendrock festival so popular - big names headline for free - that theperformance date is only publicised a few days in advance.

"People have come from as far away as Poland and of course fromall over Northern Ireland, most of them setting up tent by theCamping Barn. We have every sort of music - rock, traditional,garage - sited well away from where people live and with a specialarea set aside for families."

With only one small shop on the island whose opening hours arekept to a minimum, punters have to bring their own supply ofsustenance. "You could call us the Glastonbury of Northern Ireland,"says Mitchell, and if the 2,000 or so people who catch the ferryover from Ballycastle for the free gig are anything to go by, he'snot far off.

* Ballycastle is an hour's drive from Belfast and two hours bybus. Caledonian Macbrayne (048-20766299) ferry operates twice a dayand three times in summer. Day return: pound(s)8.40. Children halfprice, toddlers free. McQuilkins B&B 048-20763983. Camping Barn andbirdwatching: 048-20763948

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