The day the children of Sherkin Island were visited by lion cub

The West Cork islands are unique environments, where most traditional farming methods were carried out right up until the 1980s.

Animal life was intrinsically linked to human life, and a donkey and horse were as necessary as a car is today.

Creative Places West Cork Islands and the Museum of Birds and Beasts have completed a book of short stories told in the islanders’ own voices, recording a way of life shaped by necessity and the enduring relationship between people, animals, the land and the sea.

It is called The Museum Of Birds And Beasts: Stories From The Islands Of West Cork, and its stories relate to the animals, birds, fishing and folklore of the West Cork islands, gathered from the inhabitants themselves.

The authors are artists Tess Leak and Sharon Whooley, and during 2024 and 2025, they visited the people of Bere Island, Oileán Chléire, Dursey Island, Heir Island, Long Island, Sherkin Island, and Whiddy Island, along with former residents of the now uninhabited Middle Calf Island and Horse Island, to hear about the land animals and sea mammals that shared the journey.

Memories from the East and West Skeam Islands are also included in this collection.

There’s Lizzie’s marvellous collie dog on Heir Island who swam the cows over to Cunnamore Pier, Flame the lion cub, rescued from a bombed-out theatre in London, that visited the schoolchildren on Sherkin Island in the 1940s, and Blackie the cat who arrived at the door of Catherine Crowley on Middle Calf island on the morning of January 18, 1909, after being washed ashore from the shipwreck of the Savonia from Nova Scotia.

Here are a few extracts of stories from the book.

Extract of a story from Anne O’Sullivan, Long Island

My father and mother, Den and Vera O’Sullivan, were both born on Long Island. Fishing was in my father’s blood. He loved it.

He knew every cuis (inlet) and could read the sky, the moon, the tides, and predict the weather.

My father skippered boats for local man, Jimmy O’Reilly, and went on to buy the lobster boat Síle A Dó when the O’Reilly family were selling her. My brother then fished with dad and my mother joined them.

My mother knitted these beautiful Aran jumpers with no pattern, just out of her head, she never had to look down. She would be knitting while they steamed to the fishing ground and when it came to hauling, she’d wind up her knitting and help haul the lobster pots.

Extract of a story from Cyril Murphy, Bere Island

When I came back to Bere island from the orthopaedic hospital after two years recovering from TB, I still had a big iron calliper.

I couldn’t walk right but I walked away to school and the teacher, fair dues to him, said to me, ‘Haven’t you donkeys west? Why don’t you hop on one of the donkeys’ backs and come to school in the morning, and tie it to the railings there? He will be alright there for a few hours.’

So I rode Billy the donkey to school for a year until I was back walking properly again.

Extract of a story from Rose O’Sullivan, Whiddy Island

The first Friday of May was a big one; most people would have six or seven yearlings for the May Fair.

The cattle would be swam out from Whiddy to the mart from the narrowest point, that spit of gravel across from the airstrip, called Cois Roe. You would have to watch the tides of course.

You would bring two cows out at a time but you would only swim one horse over.

It used to be quite the performance when you would be gathering the cattle to take them out, the whole island could be involved because they’d invariably hop a ditch and you’d be calling out, ‘Block a gap, block the road!’ at the dawn of day or the evening before.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Tess Leak is an artist who has worked with the Arts for Health Programme, West Cork, and in community contexts since 2010.

Sharon Whooley is a film-maker with Harvest Films, working as writer, producer and director.

They have founded a number of museum-form projects such as The Museum of Miniature, the People’s Museum of Skibbereen, the Museum of Making and Mending and the Museum of Song Postal Project.

The first iteration of the Museum of Birds and Beasts took place in community hospitals in West Cork in 2022 and resulted in an exhibition of the collection and book.

The artists collaborated with master basket maker Joe Hogan, the Museum of Country Life, and the National Folklore Collection, utilising the folklore and evocative artefacts from these remarkable national collections to draw on participants’ experiences of working and living in connection with the natural world.

The Museum Of Birds And Beasts - Stories From the West Cork Islands had its first launch in Whiddy Island Community Hall last week, and there is another launch at Sherkin Island Community Hall on Sunday, May 3 at 2.30pm

These readings are free, no booking is required, and everyone is welcome.

There will be further events celebrating the book across the islands in 2026.

The Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr Mary Linehan Foley welcomed the book launch, saying: “This collection of stories from the West Cork Islands is a remarkable celebration of our shared heritage.

“The voices of islanders, past and present, bring together the stories of nature, folklore, and community that defines this part of the county.”

Creative Places West Cork Islands is led by Cork County Council and includes a consortium of local arts and development agencies such as Bere Island Projects Group, Sherkin Island Development Society, Comharchumann Chléire and Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre.