Like the rest of Ireland, Inisheer has history that makes Americans shake their heads.

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DOOLIN, Ireland — The sea was rough that day, my friend. As it should have been. We were at the mouth of Galway Bay, which meant the open Atlantic Ocean beckoned. Next stop, Newfoundland.

The Aran Islands Ferry was taking us on a dead course for the Cliffs of Moher. 

But here’s how fabulous was our Friday in Ireland. The Cliffs of Moher were going to have to scramble to be the coolest thing we saw that very afternoon.

We just had come from the island of Inisheer, a six-square-kilometer throwback to a different time. A tour bus from Galway took us around Galway Bay, about a 90-minute trip, through quaint villages and idyllic pastoral scenes and medieval ruins, to the village of Doolin.

Doolin is a tourist town courtesy of the Cliffs of Moher, which are Ireland’s second-biggest tourist attraction, trailing only the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin. The cliffs are a few kilometers up the road from Doolin. But tourists are missing it if they don’t jump aboard the ferry to Inisheer.

Stone fences define the island of Inisheer. (Tricia Tramel/Sellout Crowd)

Magical Island

Inisheer joins Inishmore and Inishmaan in making up the Aran Islands. All are small and all are inhabited. The population of all three islands was 1,347 in 2022.

Archeological evidence shows human settlement on Inisheer going back to 1,500 BC. Over these last 3,500 years, progress has come to Inisheer. Just not in bunches.

Inisheer has an airstrip. Satellite television. Electricity. A school, with about 70 students through 12th grade. A few mini-buses motoring tourists around its hills. But if you’re looking for evidence that you’re in the 21st century, the tourists’ fashions and cell phones will have to suffice.

What a throwback. We took a horse carriage around the island, driven by Joel, who was born and grew up on the island, and who left to work construction in Chicago, only to return 30 years ago, vowing to never move away.

From 1841 to 2022, Inisheer’s population has fluctuated from 532 (1861) to 239 (1981). Today, Inisheer’s population is 343. That includes legacy families and newcomers wanting to get away from it all.

Tourism keeps Inisheer alive. Every day, the Aran Islands ferries bring hundreds of visitors to see a different world. A world where the horses for the carriages and a few remaining cows from the bygone agricultural days are corralled by rock walls maybe 2½ feet high, built with the stones that once dominated the ground but were busted to make way for pasture.

Joel told us with some melancholy that Inisheer’s kids don’t aspire to live their lives on the island. They want to travel and get an education. But the people like us, six tourists from Oklahoma and Texas, and thousands more from all over a variety of continents, keep Inisheer alive.

Inisheer’s weather seems like the rest of Ireland. Chilly and cloudy. It was about 50 degrees and windy Friday. Inisheer apparently gets a little warmer in the summer, a little cooler in the winter.

Like the rest of Ireland, Inisheer has history that makes Americans shake their heads. 

The island’s patron saint is Saint Caomhan, who some traditions claim is the brother of Saint Kevin, whose legacy we encountered a few days ago in Glendalough. Caomhan is buried at the foot of the ruins of St. Cavan’s (Kevin’s) Church, which dates back to the 900s.

Inisheer also has the ruins of O’Brien’s Castle, the circa 1300s home of Inisheer’s ruling family, until the O’Flahertys captured the home in 1582. In 1654, Oliver Cromwell’s invaders from England ousted the O’Flahertys and partially dismantled the castle. But the O’Flahertys didn’t hold a grudge against the island; some O’Flaherty descendants still live on Inisheer. And I get excited about history when I occasionally run into Jay Wilkinson, son of Bud.

Joel and Tyson, his horse, also took us around to the side of the island to see the shipwrecked MV Plassy, which met its demise in 1960 off the coast of Inisheer. A group of islanders rescued the entire crew. The Atlantic Waves brought the hull of the iron ship to the rocky shore of Inisheer.

Inisheer also includes a lighthouse, completed in 1857, and includes six sites designated as national monuments.

The ferry from Doolin brings tourists. A ferry from Connemara, north of Galway, brings cargo and supplies.  Joel said the airstrip serves a nine-passenger plane. I’m not sure for what purpose.

Irish, not English, is the primary language of the island, though most people speak both. Joel’s English, like many we’ve encountered on the West Coast, was much more difficult to understand than what we encountered in Dublin.

But of course, tourism is the driver in Inisheer. There are two rustic hotels, a pub, a cafe or two, a small grocer, a fudge shop, a bicycle rental place. That’s about it. None are opulent. All are in vintage Irish buildings.

It’s a trip, I’m telling you. Quite the opening act for the Cliffs of Moher.

An Irish tour guide tells a Choctaw Nation story, unbeknownst that the great-grandson of a Choctaw chief is in the first row.

More from @BerryTramel: https://t.co/5nWoWSSmzH

— Sellout Crowd (@selloutcrowd_) May 2, 2024

Majestic Moher

The Cliffs of Moher are sea cliffs that extend out about nine miles. At their peak, they are 700 feet above the Atlantic and a majestic sight.

The cliffs also are not an easy watch from the water, until you get close. Our ferry was not a big boat, and the Atlantic was rough Friday. Maybe every day is that way. When we were outside on the ferry, we were wind-whipped and wave-tossed. You dared not walk without holding onto something. But the battering we took was well worth it. And when the ferry got closer to the base of the cliffs, the water was less choppy, and we could take in the beauty of the massive cliff face. From the sea arch at the base of the south end, to massive cave openings, which seemed straight out of “Goonies,” to the lack of a jagged face, the cliffs are a marvel.

Birds are everywhere around the cliffs. From the water, dolphins and even whales are occasionally spotted, though we didn’t see any.

The Cliffs of Moher attracts about 1.5 million visitors per year. That pales in comparison to, say, Niagara Falls, which gets about 12 million visitors, but much of that is caused by geography.

An 11-mile cliff walk is available at the Cliffs of Moher, but we had a strict one-hour deadline by our bus driver and were thankful for it. Irish officials have erected a variety of safety measures to keep visitors from the edge of the cliffs, constructing better viewing areas with much more safety, but some fools still lose their lives getting off the designated paths.

An official visitor center is the means by which most people access the Cliffs of Moher, and there are a variety of steps and walkways to get different views from the beginning of the cliffs.

The visitor center includes interactive displays, videos of the views from above the cliffs and below the water, two cafes and a variety of shops.

But I wouldn’t spend too much time inside. I’d spend my time viewing the cliffs.

Cows in the road

Driving back to Galway, we experienced the most Irish of events. On a two-lane highway, we were stopped by a farmer getting his cows out of the road. I don’t know if the cows had gotten loose or the farmer was moving them from one pasture to another, but there he was, moving 10 cows or so along the pavement, while a line of cars waited.

Our bus driver, Anthony, also served as tour guide. The excursion cost us about $50 each, which seemed like a fine price, especially since without the tour we’d never have thought about going to Inisheer. 

And here’s an example of the tour company’s expertise.

After getting off the ferry, but before driving up to the Cliffs of Moher, we stopped in Doolin for a quick lunch at McGann’s Pub. The tour company has some kind of deal with McGann’s. It pulls in every afternoon at 3 p.m. with a busload of people, and McGann’s is ready.

Its Irish menu is locked and loaded, and the wait staff swarms you quickly to take your order, you go get all drinks at the bar on your own, and water pitchers with glasses are everywhere, waiting.

I got seafood chowder (very good) and others in our group got fish and chips, and chicken caesar salad. The table next to us got Irish stew. All came out quick, all was good and all 55 people were back on the bus inside 45 minutes. Quite a production.

And quite a day. Quite a country. The Cliffs of Moher and an ancient island, holding on to the past, just waiting for the world to visit.