An fear óg a báthadh. . An island remembers.

  Iascaire Pheigín 

The magnificent headstone over the grave of Beachla Ó Fátharta at Parkmore cemetery on the Doorus Peninsula  (Photo Renee Brennan)

Over the centuries, the number of islanders lost to the sea is quite shocking. Most were drowned from boats but many were lost when washed from the rocks while fishing. 

The most famous incident of this kind was when fifteen men and boys were swept to their deaths by a freak wave at Aill na nGlasóg, on the eastern end of Árainn, in August 1852. 

A section of the late Tim Robinson’s great map showing Aill na nGlasóg, Aill an Fhéir and an Sunda Grióra in between them. 

In July 1895 a group of teenagers went fishing less than a mile away at Aill an Fhéir under the cliffs of Inis Meáin.  Once again a rogue wave rose up from the ocean and swept Beachla Ó Fátharta (1875-1895 Bartley Faherty) to his death. 

Waves crashing ashore on the western side of Inis Meáin.

The spot where Beachla was drowned is not far from “Cathaoir Synge” the location John Synge chose three years later to gaze out on an Sunda Griór, the Atlantic, Connemara, Galway Bay, West Clare and the islands. 

A lone sailor passing the spot where Beachla was drowned long ago. This was on a calm day in July 2014.

Although Beachla succeeded in catching a line thrown to him by his younger companions, he was lost when the line snapped. 

The newspapers of the time carried the story of his drowning and the terrible loss to his family, especially his mother Peigín (Margaret) Conneely and his father, Martin Faherty of West Village. 

This should read Bartley FAHERTY

Neighbours, relations and friends searched in vain on shore and sea, amid fears that like so many others, the ocean would be Beachla’s grave. 

However, some weeks later his body was washed up at Trácht beach on the Dooras peninsula, west of the village of Kinvara. The locals laid Beachla to rest in the nearby Parkmore cemetery and here he lay in an unmarked grave for many decades. 

A 19th century map of Galway Bay showing the spot where Beachla was drowned at Inis Meáin and the beach on the Doorus peninsula where his body came ashore. 

It was not possible to identify the body but suspecting he was an Islander, a sock was sent to Inis Meáin where it was recognised as Beachla’s by the woman who knitted it. 

Synge arrived on Inis Meáin three years later and it’s not hard to figure out where he got a similar sad identification event for his play, ‘Riders To The Sea’. This method was used on more than one occasion. 

 Many years ago some island relations decided to find the spot where the lad known on Inis Meáin as “Iascaire Pheigín” was buried. Among those involved in this act of remembrance was our good friend and our former Irish teacher at St Mary’s College in Galway, Micheál Ó Concheanainn.

Micheál was a great teacher and we can remember his green Morris Minor car being always available in the 1960s to bring students to various sporting, academic and cultural events. A generous man with a great sense of history. 

Trácht beach near Kinvara,  where the body of Beachla Ó Fáharta was discovered in 1895. 

Although this was over 70 years since the tragedy, Micheál was fortunate to meet an old man who remembered the story of the Aran lad washed up in 1895 and knew where he was buried, having attended the funeral as a boy. 

The simple wooden cross which for many years marked the grave of “Iascaire Pheigín” at Parkmore cemetery near Kinvara. 
Photo from a 2012 North Atlantic Skyline blog by John Smyth

About ten years ago a relation of Beachla’s, Dara Ó Fátharta from Inis Meáin, carved a simple but stunning headstone from a piece of island limestone. 

The well known poet and historian Dara Beag Ó Fátharta (1920-2012) was a nephew of the drowned “Iascaire Pheigín”. 
Dara Beag’s son Dara, carved the headstone for his granduncle Beachla.

During the annual Kinvara Cruinniú na mBád Festival in August 2015, the  Leath-bhád ‘NORA’ skippered by Seán Mac Donncha of an Cheathrú Rua, diverted to Inish Meáin and added Beachla’s headstone to its cargo of Connemara turf for Kinvara.  

Photo by Joe O’Shaughnessy of the Connacht Tribune. 

Beachla’s headstone travelled the same journey his body had drifted one hundred and twenty years earlier. 

The result is a magnificent memorial over Beachla’s grave which has been visited by many islanders over the last ten years or so. 

The ruined church at Parkmore cemetery.
Photo Renee Brennan 

A curious coincidence is that Beachla’s journey from the Aran islands to Trácht beach was a repetition of the journey Naomh Ciarán (516-546) made by boat in the 6th century. He was leaving his heartbroken community after seven wonderful years with Naomh Éanna on “Ara na Naomh”, on his way to eventually founding the great monastery at Clonmacnoise on the Shannon.  

Naomh Ciarán , Journeyed by boat from the islands to Dooras. 

Iascaire Pheigín (“Peggy’s fisherman”) and Ciarán mac an tSaeir ("Kieran, son of the carpenter"), two men who died young but are still remembered. 

Michael Muldoon. 

November 2025.