17-07-2025
Blasket Islands' oldest living inhabitant, Máiréad, dies aged 102 in Massachusetts
Máiréad turned 102 last December and was the oldest of three surviving inhabitants of the famous Great Blasket Islands off the Kerry coast.
When the Great Blaskets were evacuated in 1954, Mairéad's parents, Pats Tom and Nellí Jerry Kearney went to live in Gorta Dubha.
Máiréad had moved to the mainland in the late 1940s before going to America in 1949 at the age of 26. At the time, the Nun's Convent in Baile 'n Fheirtéaraigh operated a knitting factory that employed young ladies from the locality. It was here that Máiréad and other young women earned and saved money to emigrate to the US.
Paying tribute to Máiréad is her Gorta Dubha neighbour and US resident Maurice Brick. Maurice said people from the Blasket Island were at one with nature. Máiréad was in tune with this way of life and she often parted her advice to the youngsters of Gorta Dubha.
When Maurice lived in New York he would regularly drive the two hour journey to western Massachusetts to meet and chat with Máiréad and the family. Even though he now lives in Chicago, he kept in touch with Máiréad over the years.
'Máiréad didn't tell us she was leaving for America all those years ago. Her sister, Hannah told us she had already left. We were shocked and not at all within ourselves for some time thereafter. I did meet Máiréad in Springfield many years after,' Maurice said.
'I would drive there often to meet with some of the other Blasket islanders who had settled there. I remember attending Sunday Mass there once and as I was leaving I spotted a group of men in conversation by the gate. As I neared, I could hear they were speaking Irish and of course I introduced myself in Irish and I was greeted with joy.
"Any time I met Máiréad we talked about our time in Gorta Dubha and we laughed heartily as we recounted some of the shenanigans we were up to. Beannacht Dé Lena hAnam Uasal God Bless Her Noble Soul,' he said.
In 2023, US Republican Congressman Richard Neal made a presentation to Máiréad at the Irish Cultural Centre of Western New England in honour of being the oldest surviving Blasket Islander.
