Waves on the Shore by Bernadette Conroy

'Waves on the Shore' was written by Inishturks primary school teacher Bernadette Conroy.  Bernadette taught in the school from January 1972 until December 1978. This book portrays the life and times of a Connemara Island, Inishturk South.

Inishturk is a small island and town land situated northwest of Clifden Bay off the Connemara coast.  It is located between Omey Island, to the north and Inishturbot to the south.  The Irish name for the island is Inis Toirc, which translates as 'Island of the Boar'.  It is often referred to as Inishturk South (Inis Toirc Theas) in order to tell it apart from another island bearing the same name. This island lies farther north off the coast of Co. Mayo.  Over the decades, from famine times up to the early twentieth century, the islands population continued to decrease gradually.  This resulted in its final evacuation in the early 1980s.

When Inishturk was inhabited, it didn't have a church, pub, road or electricity.  In 1978 the remaining families witnessed the closure of the islands one teacher primary school.  The island once boasted a population of one hundred and twenty eight, but in the middle of the twentieth century, the island continued to depopulate gradually resulting in its evacuation in 1982.  Some of the people who left still maintain a connection with the island and return occasionally to attend to farming chores.  Several of the old island houses have been purchased and renovated as holiday homes, by people from Ireland as well as other European countries.  In September 2003 the island was electrified as a result of a Limited Scheme of Rural Electrification for Small Islands.