A couple chosen as the new caretakers of the Great Blasket Island for the next six months have arrived.
For Emily Campbell, 27, originally from Bandon in West Cork and Daniel Regan, 29, from London, being offered the coveted role for six months, which has attracted almost 150,000 applicants over the past five years, “feels like a dream”. This is despite the Co Kerry island having no running water and electricity.
The young couple arrived safely on the island on April 1 and have been busy cleaning out “the cobwebs” in the three cottages after the Winter and “exploring the island.”
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Billy O’Connor runs the accommodation on the Island with his partner Alice Hayes. There are no permanent residents on the island, which was deserted in the 1950s because emergency services were unable to reach it in storms.
Mr O’Connor and Ms Hayes, own three cottages which are rented out to holidaymakers and a coffee shop on the island.
In a post Emily and Daniel introduced themselves to the public. They said: “We’d like to introduce ourselves. We are Dan and Emily and we feel very lucky to have been chosen as this year's caretakers.
“On Sunday we moved onto the island for six months. It’ll be a big change from our previous jobs. Dan worked as a civil engineer on a HS2 and Emily worked as a children’s nurse in Great Ormond Street, both in London.
They added: “We’ve enjoyed spending the past week clearing off the (literal) cobwebs after a winter of barely any access to the island and exploring this incredible place.
“We are looking forward to sharing this beautiful island with you. We hope to meet many of you over the summer season. Go Raibh Maith Agat!”
Speaking earlier this year the couple who live in London said they cannot wait to “exchange waking up to the sound sirens for wildlife on their doorstep”.
Emily and Daniel, who met one night on the last underground Tube home when they began chatting about their interests in DIY, are both taking sabbaticals from their current jobs.
Emily is taking a sabbatical from her work as a children’s nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital while she also worked on a bone marrow transplant for three years before moving into research last year at the same medical facility.
Over the past several years she always watched with interest on who would become the caretakers, never expecting to one day be chosen for the job.
Daniel works as a civil engineer currently working on High Speed 2 (HS2), a major rail infrastructure project in the UK.
The couple explained that when they initially applied for the caretaker roles they thought it was “a complete pipe dream”.
Daniel said: “Given the number of applicants in previous years, and that Claire de Haas and Brock Montgomery (last year’s caretakers) applied three times before getting the opportunity, we really didn’t expect anything to come of it.
“When we got offered an interview we were absolutely delighted to get to speak to Billy and Alice and were telling everyone. We had everyone crossing their fingers and toes and Emily’s Mum even lit candles and had the rosary beads out.
“We applied in January when the job was advertised, and the excitement of the prospect really got us through the January blues. Before we had even received an interview, we were looking at buying snorkels and wind-up radios!”
“Alice emailed us to offer us the position on a Monday morning and we leapt out of bed screaming with excitement. It didn’t start feeling real until we spoke to Billy and Alice on a video call after getting the offer. It was very strange when our reality changed from ‘I wish we were going’ to ‘Oh my goodness, we are actually going.’"
The couple explained that they feel “incredibly lucky to have been given this opportunity which will allow us to prioritise our happiness.
“We’ve both joked that when we’re old and grey we’ll be delighted that we took this opportunity. We hope that we’ll make memories for a lifetime on the island.”
But the couple are under no illusions of how difficult their caretaker roles could be.
“We’re under no illusions that there won’t be tough days, or that we’ll be living on a luxurious tropical island, but we’re not afraid of adversity or getting stuck in to solve a problem.We are anticipating a shift from a fast-paced city life to being more present and appreciating simple pleasures,” they explained.
They foresee the most difficult thing about leaving their current life is not having the convenience of a local shop. “We’ll have to improve our forward thinking when we’re on the Island. We’ll also dearly miss our favourite takeaway ‘Dawat’, a Pakistani restaurant on Tooting High Dtreet that we frequent more often than we’d like to admit.
Emily admits she will also miss her hairdryer but has been trialling a Tik Tok trend of going to sleep with a pair of leggings in her hair to create curls, which has had mixed results.
For the young couple they are thankful to take time out from the “conventional milestones” and "delay ambitions”. They said: “It’s easy to delay ambitions and compromise on your health and wellbeing because of the pressure to follow life’s more conventional milestones, as well as time and financial constraints.
“We hope this opportunity will allow us to enjoy living in the moment and focus on our health and wellbeing.We both try to avoid slipping into a ‘destination happiness’ mentality and would prefer to make the most of life now, we’re both conscious of how short life can be. We couldn’t turn down this once in a lifetime opportunity.”
“We love meeting new people and hosting so we’re really looking forward to that part of the experience.The island seems like such a magical place.”
Daniel and Emily are looking forward to learning more about its rich history. Emily has already started reading Peig Sayer’s autobiography “which made the busy tube journey to work more bearable.
“There’s also an element of escapism from everything that’s happening in the world right now. Not to mention, it will be nice to get some distance from politics for a while,” added Emily.
The pair hopes that everyone who visits the island respects the natural environment and wildlife. They live by the saying “leave nothing but footsteps, take nothing but photos” and hope the visitors will too and understand that they have a responsibility to advocate the preservation of the island’s environment and the peace of the wildlife.
The previous caretakers on the island were Claire de Haas from The Netherlands and Brock Montgomery originally from Canada. Limerick’s Niamh Kelleher and her Jack Cakehead from France, Annie Birney and Eoin Boyle, from Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin and Kildare couple Leslie Kehoe and Gordon Bond.
Mr O’Connor’s links to the island date back to when his grandfather and granduncle bought the island which eventually ended up in lengthy and costly legal battles in the High and Supreme Courts against the State and Charles Haughey over ownership and use rights.
The couple’s adventure can be followed on GreatBlasketCaretakers on Instagram.
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