Peace And Tranquility On Rathlin Island

You may not have heard of Rathlin Island, which is to be found just six miles north of the Antrim coast. Those who live here, and they can be numbered at around a hundred, almost live as part of one big extended family, but this is not to the exclusion of visitors, who are more than welcome.

With a gentle pace of life, the traditional skills of fishing, farming and boat-building are still carried on, but more young people are making the decision to set up businesses to support the growing tourist trade.

Rathlin Island -  a close knit community

Teresa McFaul has four children and her one grandchild, Rowan, who was born in May, is the designated youngest island resident.

"If there is a function on, everybody goes, down to the new baby. It's just part of what you do," she said. She admits she has "to be in the middle of everything" and is an enthusiastic member of the island's drama group. "Since we first started the drama group, I've been involved in every production. Every year I would look up plays and sort out who would suit the parts and annoy them," she said. "From about February, everybody hides from me."

Michael Cecil is one of the skippers working with the Rathlin Ferry Company, and he has lived on the island for all his life. He is also the current chairman of the island's development and community association.

With three children of different ages, their circumstances span the spectrum of what the educational life means for the island children. He has one child attending the island's primary school, another ready for secondary school and his oldest child is attending university. For island children, the transition from primary to secondary school involves living away from home.

"We are in the process of getting Orlagh ready for boarding school. I think she's looking forward to it, but it's a nervous time for everybody, an anxious time. It will work out," Michael said.
She is the only pupil in Rathlin's P7 primary school class and one of just nine children attending the school.  When she moves to boarding school which is in Belfast, she will rely on the ferry to get her home at weekends. The ferry is the island's lifeline as well as being  one of Rathlin's biggest employers.

There is an acceptance amongst the islanders that sending their children to boarding school is just part of what island life entails.  Noel McCurdy spent 20 years working on lighthouses around Ireland before returning to Rathlin, where, among other jobs, he is the island's postman.

"People tend to have a second job. My other job would be (with) the water service and the Irish Lights," he said. "The lighthouse service job is basically call-out only and you do a bit of maintenance once a week or once a fortnight."

Having always been self sufficient, the islanders have to provide services that other people would probably take for granted. Michael Cecil said Rathlin's volunteer fire crew meets on most Monday evenings for pump practice using water from the lake.

"It's normally what we would use for any fire on the island. Believe it not, water is quite limited on an island. We have a very limited fresh water supply at the fire hydrants, so most times, for gorse fires, we would have to find water at another location, from the lake or the sea or small streams."

Now, oil has been discovered off the County Antrim coast, and it obviously raises concerns about a possible environmental impact on the island. Some islanders feel that drilling off the island could have serious repercussions for the future.

"People would be concerned that there would be some damage to our tourism sector or maybe some environmental damage," Michael Cecil said. "The uncertainty is probably the biggest concern. We don't know what is going to happen, we don't know when it is going to happen. If we had some clarity on that, it gives people a focus."

Michael feels that a campaign of total opposition to drilling operations would tend to split the Rathlin community. "My preferred approach would be to sit down and engage with government, engage with the oil companies, make sure all environmental protection is in place, all the legislation is followed, all the health and safety procedures and possibly extract some community benefit from any potential revenue that's there," he said. "It's a beautiful place and it should be left as a beautiful place for the next generation."

                                                        The Rathlin Island Community