'People think it's mad' - Kilkenny woman lands dream job on remote island

Little electricity. No hot water. And months living on a remote and windswept Atlantic island.

Every year thousands of people seek the chance to do exactly that, but only two are chosen.

This tourist season, Kilkenny native Aisling Costello and her partner Conor Jones will take on the challenge as the new caretakers of Great Blasket Island.

For several months, the couple will live on the rugged island off the coast of the Dingle Peninsula, running a small coffee shop and managing three holiday cottages for visitors.

It’s a role that sounds idyllic as a fleeting thought but it demands hard work, adaptability and a willingness to leave modern comforts behind.

For Aisling, however, the idea felt right from the beginning, and she can’t wait to get to work.

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“I've known about the job for a couple of year from just seeing it online, and I immediately wanted to do it,” she said.

“I think some people think it's a completely mad thing to want to do, but I knew immediately, that's just what I would love to do.”

It must be noted that landing the job is no small feat, far from it in fact.

The caretaker positions on Great Blasket Island attract enormous interest.

Every year thousands of applicants seek to apply and now application numbers have had to be capped as a result.

Aisling remembers exactly where she was when she discovered she had been selected.

“Oh my God, it was amazing. We were actually on holiday at the time,” she said.

The couple were in San Sebastian, a resort town on the Bay of Biscay in Spain’s mountainous Basque Country, when the email arrived.

“I just looked at my phone and I had gotten the email,” she explained.

“I assumed it was going to be a rejection letter just because I knew so many people applied for it.”

But the message brought very different news, and elation.

“We were so excited,” she said. “We walked around San Sebastian for about two days kind of in a daze.”

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While the opportunity might seem unusual to some, Costello believes there may be a deeper reason she was drawn to it.

Her family has long been connected to island communities.

“My granddad, who was a teacher, actually went to Inis Meáin in 1942 to photograph the villagers and their everyday lives during The Emergency,” she explained.

“A display of his photographs are currently being exhibited in The Hole in the Wall in Kilkenny City.”

Now Aisling will experience island living for herself, not as a visitor, but as a vital cog in keeping island life ticking over.

Days will revolve, weather-permitting of course, around the arrival of boats bringing visitors from the mainland.

Cottages must be cleaned and prepared for new guests, while the island’s small café serves teas, coffees and snacks to day-trippers exploring the historic landscape.

“There's three cottages on the island that we'll be kind of cleaning and preparing,” Costello explained.

“Then when that's all done we kind of run a small little cafe just out of a hatch from the kitchen part of our own cottage.”

Supplies will arrive regularly by boat.

“We just basically send our order and daily or every second day we'll be getting supplies over.

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“Billy (co-owner of the Great Blasket Island Experience) will bring them over onto the island.”

Records show that in the middle of the 19th Century, the islands had 175 residents.

Following the devastation of The Great Famine, subsequent emigration and the allure of the modern world the population gradually declined.

By 1953, the population stood at just 22 and the decision was taken to relocate those who remained to the mainland.

Over seventy years later, life on the Great Blasket Island is still very much off-grid.

When they took it on over a decade ago, Billy O'Connor and his partner Alice were determined to preserve the way of life and offer visitors an escape from the hustle and bustle of the modern world.

This is only possible with the help of the seasonal caretakers, and it’s not something that Aisling takes for granted, knowing that modern conveniences will be scarce.

“Hot water, no. Electricity, tiny bit,” Aisling explains.

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“There's not actually really electricity on the islands. We have a tiny little turbine behind our cottage which I think generates barely enough to charge a phone.”

Both Aisling and partner Conor were quick to embrace the idea of leaving behind the rush of modern life.

“I think I definitely wanted to first, but then once I told Conor about it it was right up his alley as well,” she said.

“We like to spend a lot of time outdoors and we love experiencing new things. We both have been really craving the disconnect from hectic, everyday life at the moment.”

Days spent on the island will likely look very different from their usual routine.

“People are always like what are you going to actually do out there? And I have so many answers to that question,” she said.

“I'm planning on learning how to do the splits. I'm planning on really improving my Irish, we really want to get active and get into the outstanding nature as well.”

Interestingly, the island is home to one of the largest grey seal colonies on the West Atlantic Coast.

It is also surrounded by thriving marine activity such as dolphins, whales, basking sharks, and seabirds. 

The couple’s decision to up sticks and move has certainly sparked curiosity among friends, family and the wider public.

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“There's some people that you would tell and they just ask why… they can't fathom why you would actually want to do something like that.

“We just wanted to experience as much as we can. Everything is a win if the goal is experience.

“We're definitely excited about just doing something mad, doing something different. We're never going to get this opportunity again.”

The couple are preparing to travel to the island sometime in late March, although the exact date will depend on the weather and some other factors.

“We are going to be ready to go from the last week of March and then once we get a break in the weather Billy and Alice will blow the whistle and we'll go hightailing it down to Dunqueen to get the boat over,” she said.

When that moment comes, Aisling expects the reality of it all may take some time to sink in.

“It’s just going to be mad to finally be there after all of the thinking about it.”

For generations, the island was home to a small Irish-speaking community whose stories and traditions became famous far beyond its shores.

Writers such as Tomás Ó Criomhthain, Peig Sayers and Muiris Ó Súilleabháin captured the rhythms of island life in works that are now considered classics of Irish literature.

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For Aisling, stepping into that landscape carries a sense of responsibility as well as excitement.

“What we are mostly interested in while we're there is we really want to feel part of the island,” she said.

“We want to absorb all the history and the culture and that deep connection to the land and to the nature and everything as well.

“I think that’s what we're really looking forward to the most, is just kind of being at the end of the earth.”