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Inishsirrer

Small island of the coast of Ireland

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Inishsirrer (Irish: Inis Oirthir, meaning 'outer island') is a small island and a townland off the coast of Gweedore, County Donegal, Ireland.

01Geography

Inishsirrer is around 1 kilometre (0.6 miles) off the coast of Gweedore, not faraway from Inishmeane. It is around 1.6 kilometres (1.0 mile) long and four hundred metres (1,300 feet) wide.

02History

A small community has lived on the island since the mid 19th century. In the 1858 Griffiths Valuation of Ireland 3 families had houses on the island with a further 13 owning land as well as agricultural buildings on the island. Many descendants of these original settlers still own land on the island to this day.

Some people moved to the island during the famine in order to escape the effects of the Irish Famine and kept the land in the subsequent years.

The island had permanent families who would live on the island for the whole year and other families who would farm on the island during the winter while living on the mainland, however some of these families would then live on the island during the summer.

The island was still inhabited until the 1950s however the remaining islanders moved to the mainland mainly due to emigration of their children and the harsh weather conditions. Today tconditions.

Historical population
YearPop.±%
18410,     
185126,     
186130+15.4%
187114−53.3%
188122+57.1%
189128+27.3%
190143+53.6%
191141−4.7%
YearPop.±%
192648+17.1%
193634−29.2%
194618−47.1%
19515−72.2%
19560−100.0%
196100.00%
196600.00%
197100.00%
YearPop.±%
197900.00%
198100.00%
198600.00%
199100.00%
199600.00%
200200.00%
200600.00%
Source: Central Statistics Office. "CNA17: Population by Off Shore Island, Sex and Year". CSO.ie. Retrieved 12 October 2016.

03Fishing

Inishsirrer was known as a good spot for however many of the islanders descendants visit the island. lobster fishing.

Watch videos about InishsirrerExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Inishsirrer, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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