I retired from the Hall of Justice on 16 February 1991, after eighteen years of service. Mayor Mary Hurley proclaimed that day as ‘Michael J. Carney Day’ in Springfield.
When I look back at my career, I’m proud of what I accomplished. As we used to say all the time, ‘We’re doing all right in America!’ Yes, we did just fine in America.
For me, Cahersiveen was better than the island; Dublin was better than Cahersiveen; and America was better than Dublin. I moved up the ladder.
Cahersiveen and Dublin opened my eyes. People would say, ‘Mike, it was a great day for you when you left the island.’ Frankly, I could not have endured the aggravation of the island – the weather and the way of living.
Over the years since retirement, we have taken lots of trips with our good friends Mackie (who was from Ventry) and Sheila Garvey. We went to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, both in Canada; to Bermuda, Aruba, and on a Caribbean cruise. We spent the month of March in beautiful, warm Marco Island, Florida, for some twenty-odd years.
When we were in Prince Edward Island, we travelled across the longest bridge in the world, about 9 miles long. I thought to myself that they should build that kind of bridge over to the island from Dunquin.
It is a typical American retirement. It’s a big difference from the island where there was really no such thing as retirement. You just helped out with the work of the day as best you could until you couldn’t do so any more.
After thirty-seven years on Middle Street, we moved to a condominium in Springfield, called Georgetown, in 2002. At our age, we were having a hard time keeping up with all the maintenance that was involved and we didn’t need a four-bedroom house any more. It was tough to leave Hungry Hill, but the old neighbourhood had changed. It was no longer an Irish community.
I have been back to Ireland about twenty-five times over the years. Recently, we have been going back every year for the Blasket Commemoration weekend in late September. I always look forward to my annual visit with great anticipation.
I still keep up with the news from Ireland every week with The Kerryman. I always read The Irish Voice, The Irish Echo and Ireland of the Welcomes. And I am still involved in Irish affairs in the Springfield area.
In 2007, I had back surgery for spinal stenosis. The results were highly satisfactory, but we decided to move to Keystone Woods, a new independent-living facility, to get more day-to-day support. It worked out very well. My brother Maurice’s wife, Joan, lived next door to us.
Mike Carney on his retirement day at the Hampden County Hall of Justice.
Unfortunately, the love of my life, Maureen Ward Carney or ‘Ma Carney’, as I always called her, died of cancer in July 2010 at the age of ninety. She was graceful right until the very end.
Mike and Maureen Carney in 2009 with The Great Blasket Island in the background.
We had a grand send-off for her at Sacred Heart Church, the largest church in Western Massachusetts. There was a lone bagpiper who played the hymn ‘Amazing Grace’. It reminded me of the lamenting music back on the island. Of course, we had a reception afterwards at the John Boyle O’Reilly Club.
Maureen and I would have celebrated sixty years of marriage the following September. We had a terrific life together. She put up with a lot as yours truly spent a lot of time on Irish activities. Our life together was quite an adventure in many ways. I miss her dearly every single day. It took me a good six months to get over her passing. But time helps to heal your wounds. Eventually I was able to move on.
I moved again to Bluebird Estates in East Longmeadow in 2010. Yes, I finally made my move to the suburbs. I still give talks on the island and on Ireland. I even teach a little Irish now and again. There’s just no rest for an islander.
I listen to Raidió na Gaeltachta faithfully almost all day every day. I get it live right in my apartment on internet radio. There is a five-hour time difference, but that doesn’t bother me a bit. It is great to keep up on the news from Kerry and hear the Irish language in news and music.
I still follow the Kerry sports teams back in Ireland and keep in touch with my West Kerry friends who are huge fans. But I am also fan of all the Boston area sports teams, including the Red Sox, the Patriots, the Bruins and the Celtics.
Despite my love for Ireland and the island, I was never tempted to move back after I was established here in America almost sixty-six years ago. I set down new roots in Springfield. I am now a true Irish-American. But now, more than ever, I appreciate my island heritage and I am determined to preserve its legacy.
9. An Island Legacy
Even at the age of almost ninety-three and counting, I am still working to preserve the legacy of my beloved island. I firmly believe that The Great Blasket has earned a special place in Irish history and in the story of the emigration of the Irish people to the United States.
Fortunately, I am not alone. A whole group of people from West Kerry and America have worked tirelessly to perpetuate the traditions and memory of the island.
Edna Uí Chinnéide of Moorestown and her sons, Micheál and Lorcan, have been leading supporters of the island for the past twenty-five years. Edna was married to my second cousin and best friend in Dublin, Caoimhín Ó Cinnéide. (Caoimhín passed away in 1985.)
Edna is a great organiser, fund-raiser, researcher and editor. She is passionate and persistent. She is highly dedicated to the Blasket cause. Her son Micheál is a very special personal friend. He is named after his islander great-grandfather, Micheál ‘Mhuiris’ Ó Catháin who drowned in a fishing accident back in Cuas an Bhodaigh, near Moorestown. A group of them were fishing for mackerel one night. They overloaded their naomhóg and it tipped over in a cove near the pier. It was a tragedy. Micheál graduated from the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway and got a master of business administration degree from Harvard University in Massachusetts. He has served the Irish government in a number of important positions. Today, he is a director with the Environmental Protection Agency of Ireland.
Mike Carney at ninety years of age.
When Micheál was studying at Harvard and working at the Irish Consulate in New York City, he stayed in our home on Hungry Hill many, many times. He used to say it was his second home. I would tell him stories about the old days on the island. And, of course, we’d go to the John Boyle O’Reilly Club to have a few beers.
The Blasket Island Foundation
In the early 1970s, an American named Taylor Collings from Alabama started buying plots of land on the island. He was planning to create a resort of some type, a kind of ‘Blasket Island Ranch’. Some people said he got the idea from the beautiful scenery that was shown in the film Ryan’s Daughter that was popular at the time. He had big plans. And preservation of the legacy of island was not high on his agenda.
Edna Uí Chinnéide reviews Blasket material with Mike Carney and Gerald Hayes in Dingle.
Quite a few former islanders sold their island holdings to Collings. They saw it as an opportunity to sell property that they thought might be worthless. Eventually, he purchased seventeen of the twenty-five private properties on the island. My sister Cáit sold our own family home to Collings for a very small amount of money, maybe £100 or so. She thought that getting £100 in cash was better than nothing. But Collings lost interest in the project for some reason. Maybe he could not get financing – I don’t know.
In May 1985, Micheál Ó Cinnéide saw an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal offering the island for sale for $900,000. He was shocked. The ownership of the island had passed from Collings to a company called An Blascaod Mór Teoranta, or The Blasket Island, Limited. The company was run by Peter Callery, a solicitor from Dingle, who had been Collings’ lawyer, and his brother Jim. They were interested in selling. This was startling news. All of a sudden, people realised that the legacy of the island might be in jeopardy. I immediately said to Micheál, ‘over my dead body.’ The news motivated me and others to do something about it.
A group of people with va
rious island connections got together and established the Blasket Island Foundation (Fondúireacht an Bhlascaoid), a private non-profit organisation in 1987. Its purpose is to keep the spirit of the island alive and to promote its memory.
The Foundation considered trying to purchase the island, but the asking price had been increased to $1 million and that kind of money was way out of reach. It seemed that the only way to acquire and preserve the island was to get the government involved. As we knew from past experience, that could (and did) take many years.
The Foundation raised money for a study on the creation of a Blasket Centre as a first step in preserving the island’s legacy. The big fund-raiser was a raffle. Tickets were $100 apiece. I sold some tickets at the John Boyle O’Reilly Club in Springfield. Good old-fashioned gambling got the ball rolling on the preservation of the island. Because of the professional study commissioned by the Foundation, the Irish government took a serious interest in the project and eventually funded and built the Blasket Centre (Ionad an Bhlascaoid) in Dunquin.
Today, the Foundation promotes the island with its annual magazine, An Caomhnóir, with the annual ‘Blasket Commemoration’ (Ceiliúradh an Bhlascaoid) conference and with a scholarship programme for the young people of West Kerry.
After the Blasket Centre opened in 1993, the Foundation then pushed for the acquisition of the island land and the creation of The Great Blasket Island National Historical Park. That is a story in itself.
The Blasket Centre/Ionad an Bhlascaoid
The Blasket Centre is located in Dunquin directly overlooking the island, across Blasket Sound. The purpose of the centre is to educate people about the way of life on the island.
Speaking at the centre’s dedication ceremony in 1994, Bertie Ahern, then Minister for Finance and later Taoiseach, said, ‘I wish to acknowledge that this centre would never have been achieved without the dedication of the Fondúireacht an Bhlascaoid and I would like to take this opportunity to publicly recognise that contribution. The Fondúireacht is comprised of a group of exceptional people fully dedicated to the preservation of the island.’ This was high praise for those involved and it was richly deserved.
The Blasket Centre in Dunquin overlooks Blasket Sound and the island. A statue of Tomás Ó Criomhthain stands at the left.
On the central plaza that overlooks the island, there is a fine statue of Tomás Ó Criomhthain looking out towards the island with the wind blowing in his face. He is holding his hat down on his head and his coat is blowing in the wind. When I think about it, I nearly cry.
Mike Carney reads The Kerryman at home in Springfield. This photo is on display in ‘The Springfield Gallery’ at the Blasket Centre.
They even have a picture of yours truly, Mike Carney, on display in a section dedicated to Springfield’s island emigrants. I am sitting on the front stoop of my house on Middle Street in my Bermuda shorts and bare feet reading The Kerryman.
The best indication of the centre’s success is the fact that over 40,000 people visit every year. It is one of the biggest tourist draws in Ireland. The director of the centre is Micheál de Mórdha from Dunquin. He has done a fantastic job of promoting the island over the years. He is constantly researching the history of the island and is extremely knowledgeable about island life. And his son Dáithí is following in his footsteps.
In 2012, Micheál published a book on the social history of the island entitled Scéal agus Dán Oileáin, or The Story and Fate of an Island. I call Micheál on the telephone just about every week so that I can keep up to date in matters involving the island.
The Great Blasket Island National Historical Park
The island has been pretty much abandoned for sixty years now. The Blasket Centre is a great place for explaining the island’s past, but I would like to see the island itself protected for future generations. Today, The Great Blasket is quite a tourist attraction. About 15,000 people a year go into the island on motor boats operated by independent boatmen. Depending on the weather, these ferries depart from Dingle or Dunquin. It can be a rough trip! But, with some many people walking all over the old village, the ruins of the homes need to be preserved and explained, and restroom facilities are needed.
In 1989, under the leadership of then Taoiseach Charlie Haughey, the government adopted An Blascaod Mór National Historic Park Act. This act authorised purchasing most of the island from its current owners by compulsory acquisition, or ‘eminent domain’ as we would say in America. But An Blascaod Mór Teoranta, the major owner, filed a lawsuit objecting to the compulsory acquisition of the land. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court found that the act was unconstitutional. This was a big setback, of course, but the Foundation continued to work with the government to prepare a management plan for the park.
Martin Nolan, the Kerry County Manager at the time, played a very important role in developing the plan. He was calm, cool and collected. He invited all interested parties to come forward and speak their mind. He held public forums in West Kerry and even in the Springfield area. He was very fair to all involved. I spoke out at the Springfield forum, urging the Irish government to create the park as soon as possible. It would preserve the island and bring it back to life again.
A group of US Congressmen visit the Blasket Centre in 2009. (L–r) Donald Payne, Richard E. Neal, Nydia Velazquez, Luis Gutierrez and Timothy Murphy with Dr Breandán Ó Cíobháin, genealogist, and Micheál de Mórdha, Centre Director.
The biggest obstacle to the creation of the park was still the acquisition of the land. Since compulsory acquisition was now out, the government would need to reach an agreement with the owners.
The Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism, John O’Donoghue, TD for South Kerry, helped to get a government appropriation to fund the acquisitions. This was critical since there would be no deal without fair compensation to the seller. Then, in 2005, the government approached the Callerys about buying their land. The Callerys wanted permits to operate the visitor services on the island. The permits were issued but they were appealed to An Bord Pleanála in Dublin by two people who wanted to keep the status quo.
I got very frustrated with all the delays. I called The Kerryman and told them that there was a book written about the island called Twenty Years a-Growing. Now, we had been ‘twenty years a-waiting’ for the national park. I told them that all the delay was like a kick in the backside. I told them I was speaking from my heart. They printed all this in the newspaper.
Our congressman from Springfield, Richie Neal, strongly supported the park. He got in touch with the then Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and urged the government to move the plans for the park forward.
Eventually, An Bord Pleanála denied the appeal in October 2008. In my opinion, they got it right.
Then, in February 2009, the government reached agreement with An Blascaod Mór Teoranta to acquire most of the land. Finally, things started to move forward.
In May 2009, Mary McAleese, then President of Ireland, visited the Springfield area. She met with me, my brother Martin and my cousin Mairéad Kearney Shea, the two local surviving islanders. Of course, I brought up the government’s support for the park. She told me not to worry. This was a great relief. Her words meant a lot since they came right from the top.
In June 2012, I was honoured to meet another President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, on his visit to Boston. Higgins had previously served in the government as Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht. In that job, he was involved in the creation of the Blasket Centre in the 1990s. He was accompanied on his visit to Boston by the current Minister, Jimmy Deenihan, a former Gaelic footballer for Kerry. This was yet another opportunity to emphasise the importance of preserving the island, and their response was very positive. This was even more encouraging news.
But, as in the case of the evacuation, we eventually achieved the goal. The land has been acquired. Work on the park has begun and the improvements so far are terrific. Guides are giving tours of the island. It is not yet officially a na
tional park, but that day will come soon.
(L–r) Gerald W. Hayes, Minister Jimmy Deenihan, President Michael D. Higgins, Mike Carney, Maureen Carney Hayes and Michael P. Carney enjoy a moment in Boston.
I suppose I am an impatient man or maybe even a stubborn man. The effort to persuade the government to move forward with the park took many, many years. In some ways it reminded me of the years it took to persuade the government to move the remaining islanders off the island. Unfortunately, governments do not move as fast as one would like.
I think the island deserves the recognition. I certainly hope it happens while I am still living.
Dr Michael Joseph Carney
On a September morning in 2009, my son Mike, my daughter Maureen and her husband Jerry Hayes showed up at our apartment at Keystone Woods, having been tipped off on some very important news. Then the phone rang. It was Micheál de Mórdha calling from the Blasket Centre. He said that he had good news for me.
Dr Carney is flanked by Dr Tadgh Ó Dubhsláine (left) and Dr James Walsh, deputy president, NUI Maynooth.
De Mórdha announced that the NUI Maynooth had decided to award me an honorary doctorate in Celtic literature. He said that it was to be conferred later in the month and that I needed to pack my bags for Ireland. This was a huge surprise! I really didn’t know what to make of it! I was to be the recipient of the degree as the oldest surviving islander, but it was being awarded in recognition of the literary contributions of all islanders, living and dead.
For just a brief a moment, I had a flashback. I remembered my old friend Kruger marching into the Dáil with the leather satchel that said ‘Maurice Kavanagh, MD’. I was about to be a doctor, just like Kruger.
From the Great Blasket to America Page 16
