‘If we lose this way of life in this part of the world, Ireland has no chance to keep its culture’

Everything I learned while growing up I learned by the fireside or out fishing. Living on a small island in Connemara, it wasn’t schoolbooks that taught me about life, but listening to the old fishermen of the area.

I was born in Leitir Mealláin (Lettermullen) off the Galway coast in 1953, and grew up speaking Irish. The nearest butchers’ was in Galway and we had no electricity, so most of my time was spent on the shoreline, cutting seaweed and fishing for all kinds from the sea.

I know the names of all the rocks here, nobody else knows them but myself, but I’ll be the last generation of the old ways on this island. Preserving and recording this life has to be done, and that’s what I’ve dedicated myself towards.

I set up the Lettermullen and Garumna Heritage Centre in 2009 and filled it with my own collection of artefacts gathered over the years. There were no tourists coming to the island and I had to do something.

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The rich and varied collection – the only one of its kind in Connemara – includes tools used for forging, farming, carpentry and cooking; a library of old newspapers, photos, magazines, posters, and more than 8,000 books. We have won many awards for the centre, both local and international.

I like to do everything the old way too and show people how it used to be done

People visit wanting to know more about the old ways or who their great-grandmother was, and I can tell them. I’m good at that. I can go back hundreds of years and people come from all over the world to retrace their ancestors.

I go out to the schools to show them old pictures of people of the area and the tools their great-grandparents would have used, like a basket used for getting eggs from a chicken house. They like that.

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The stories I heard by the fireside growing up, I collected and wrote down. Everybody comes to me for stories and that. Ah sure everybody around the country knows me anyhow. There’s not many books about this stuff in Galway where you won’t see my name mentioned in it.

I do all sorts in the community. Recently, I welcomed some visitors from an island off Norway called Sotra, which is twinned with Leitir Mealláin. They have lots of books about our area and have a deep interest because they have Irish ancestry here.

I still collect books, stories and folklore from people in the area, lots about superstitions like the fairies and that. I go and visit Martin McDonagh’s father all the time too. We talk about fishing and everything like that, you know?

I used to run a festival here every year called Bring it Back to the Past, where people used to fish on the rocks, play some traditional music and stay out all day telling stories. We had a turf fire out there to boil the fish and do tea – everything like that.

I like to do everything the old way too and show people how it used to be done. I go out fishing most days during summer, when the weather’s fine. I go out on my wooden currach made locally in Leitir Mealláin to catch mackerel and pollack. I don’t take anybody with me any more though, there’s no fish left. It’s all caught by the big boats.

If we lose this way of life in this part of the world, Ireland has no chance to keep its culture

I’ve fought to keep our seaweed too. About four years ago a big Canadian company called Acadian Seaplants tried to take the seaweed rights after buying out State seaweed company Arramara Teo in 2014. I lobbied Irish and EU politicians to fight for our seaweed and we kept those rights.

But still we’re losing too much of the old ways. I think in the next 20 years there will be nobody speaking Irish here. There are no local young people settling in the area. When somebody dies, the key is turned in the door not to be opened again. When I was growing up, every house in the village used to make poitín. Nobody makes it any more here. It’s a dying trade.

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If we lose this way of life in this part of the world, Ireland has no chance to keep its culture. The likes of me now won’t keep it alive. There’s nobody else left. We’ve lost so much.

We had everything back then. There were plenty of fish in the sea, plenty of shellfish on the shore and plenty of potatoes in the garden – teabags too. We were never hungry. We hadn’t much, but we had enough. – In conversation with Conor Capplis

For more information on Lettermullen and Garumna Heritage Centre, visit ionadoidhreachta.com