Binding: Hardback
Date Published: 22 Sep 2026
80th Anniversary Edition with new introduction by Micheal de Mordha.
This 80th anniversary edition features a specially commissioned original painting by Dingle-based artist Aine Ni Chiobhain.
The Western Island is Robin Flower's intimate and lyrical portrait of life on the Great Blasket Island, the outermost inhabited point of Europe. Between 1910 and the eve of the Second World War, Flower - known to the islanders as 'Blaithin', their word for 'little flower' - lived among the 150 Gaelic-speaking inhabitants of this remote and wind-scoured community, winning their trust and recording a way of life on the edge of extinction. He writes of the frugality and resilience of island life, of storytellers and poets, of ghost lore and fairy tale, of a people who, in his words, spoke great literature long before it was ever written down. Part memoir, part elegy, part ethnological document, The Western Island remains one of the most beloved books in the rich tradition of Blasket Island writing.
Cover design and typograhy by Fiachra McCarthy