Pourquoi le gouvernement irlandais à ordonné l’évacuation de l’île de An Blascaod Mór ?

Réponse apportée le 05/13/2013  par PARIS Bpi – Actualité, Art moderne, Art contemporain, Presse

Bonjour,

Suite à votre question, j’ai parcouru les quelques sites cités ci-dessous pour trouver les raisons de l’évacuation de l’Ile de An Blascaod Mor ou Blasket Island.

Pour résumer brièvement si vous ne lisez pas l’anglais, il semble que la décision ait été prise par le gouvernement irlandais d’évacuer les 22 habitants restants sur cette île en raison d’une pénurie de tourbe qui était le carburant unique des îliens. La population s’était déjà considérablement réduite en raison d’une émigration régulière des jeunes habitants pour le Massachusetts. En 1946, un jeune homme est décédé suite à une méningite qui n’a pu être soignée faute de pouvoir aller chez le médecin sur le continent à une demi-journée de trajet ce qui a frappé les esprits et entraîné plus d’émigration encore.
Les habitants ont été relogés par le gouvernement irlandais sur le continent.

*Last Inhabitant Evacuated from Blasket Islands, 1953
Interesting Things that Happened on November 17
<http://voices.yahoo.com/last-inhabitant-evacuated-blasket-islands-1953-10469521.html IRL-KERRY-L Archives From: "Kathleen Coburn"
Subject: [KER] Blasket Island Evacuation 1953
Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 09:51:40 -0700

* « Blasket’s Case », The Independent, January 11, 1998;
<http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/blaskets-case-1138148.html "The evacuation in 1953 was in no small part the result of the death by meningitis of a young island man cut off by bad weather from medical help. Beginning in the late 19th century, a tradition of emigration from the Blaskets to Massachusetts evolved and continued up to the island's evacuation. Many came back to visit their old island home, but many did not.3 *THE BLASKET ISLANDS: Historical Information Na Blascaodaí <http://www.dingle-peninsula.ie/blaskets.html "Sadly, the Blasket Island community declined as a result of the persistent emigration of its young people, until eventually the Island was abandoned in 1953 when only 22 inhabitants remained." <http://secretirishflimfestival.blogspot.fr/2011/03/blasket-islands.html Thursday, March 24, 2011 "The Blasket Islands The Secret of Roan Inish is loosely based on the evacuation of the Blasket Island, which are 6 islands that are visible on the shore of Ireland. In the movie at the begining they are at their mother's funeral, and then soon after the island of Roan Inish is evacuated. This is very similar to what happened on the Blasket Islands. Life on the islands was hard because they can only get to the mainland on less than half of the days in a year due to inclimate weather. In 1946 right before Christmas Sean O Cearna was out getting a sheep for their Christmas feast when his 24 year-old son, Seainin collapsed. He became more ill over the next few days. They had no telephone and there was no doctor and to make things worse no boat could cross to the mainland. The people were stranded and could do nothing for the poor young man as he died due to meningitis. The death of this young mand broke the will of the islanders forever. Some left after that and by the time the government forced those still on the island to relocate to the mainland there were only about 22 left to relocate. The island was fully evacuated in 1953 and the government provided some of the islanders with cottages by the sea so they can still see the Blasket Islands and remember their time on the island." * The Blaskets, County Kerry <http://www.kerryholiday.co.uk/blaskets.html Numbers dwindled over the years as emigration took its toll, but the final decision to evacuate the island came when the turf supply (the only source of fuel on the island) became scarce, and the last remaining islanders left the Great Blasket in 1953. Aided by Government grants, the last inhabitants of the island were re-settled on the mainland, mostly in the parish of Dunquin. From their new home, the islanders could still look across the stormy Blasket Sound towards the little islands that held so many memories for them. Pour plus d'information, je vous suggère d'interroger la bibliothèque du Comté de Kerry : Kerry Library Moyderwell, Tralee, Co. Kerry Leabharlann Chiarraí Tobar Muí Doire, Trá Lí, Co. Chiarraí Tel: (066) 7121200 Fax:(066) 7129202 E-mail: info@kerrylibrary.ie Cordialement, Eurêkoi - Bpi (Bibliothèque publique d'information) <http://www.bpi.fr <https://www.eurekoi.org