Lucky Young couple Lands Gig takes care of uninhabited Irish island

Camille Rosenfeld and James Hayes have landed a unique opportunity. The young couple was selected as the caretaker of one of the most remote and breathtaking places in Ireland: Great Blasket Island.

“Oh my god … it seems that such a dream would come true,” said Rosenfeld to How it happens’ Host Nil Köksal.

“You wouldn’t even think that it would be a possibility … We feel really happy that we were selected.”

From April the few months will live on this 1,100 hectare island off the west coast of the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland. They currently live in Tralee, which is about 80 kilometers from the country and the sea.

The island is covered with a lavish, emerald green landscape with gentle hills and spectacular cliffs that circle through turquoise waves.

Distributed with relics and ruins from a past past, it is also deep in the rich Irish heritage and in history.

After the island lived a close-knit, Gaelic-speaking community, it was left in 1953 when its last residents were brought to the mainland so that they have access to what the island does not have had emergency services for the aging population and mild winter.

Since then it has been largely untouched, so nature can recapture the country.

Rosenfeld has not yet kicked the island, but on a recent hike nearby she says that it is a sight.

“It’s just so green, the green grass that you would ever see,” she said.

“During a few weeks in summer there are these beautiful purple flowers that bloom over the fields. It looks like something from the wizard of OZ.”

The island is also full of wild animals. The Caretaker from last year Say there are sharks, seals, sheep, whales, dolphins and rabbits.

Get the appearance

The care position was advertised by Peter O’Connor and his wife Alice Hayes, who live on the mainland. But they own the five holiday homes and a small café on Great Blasket, which the new caretaker will monitor.

When the pair of attitudes released the live in season position for the first time in January 2020, they were flooded with 80,000 applications. Since then, they have limited the number that will take into account to 300.

Nevertheless, it is a big pool and James Hayes is not quite sure why they were selected.

“You are beautiful people and we got on so well,” said Hayes from the interview

“We don’t really know why, except that they only think that they can get along with us and that we seem nice people who will work hard.”

Hayes actually grew up elsewhere in the county of Kerry. He says that he was already enchanted by the island before the opportunity to work there and visited her during the college.

“Back then it really captured my imagination,” he said.

“It was always on my radar … the story of the island; it is a kind of cultural landmark.”

And for Rosenfeld, who comes from Minnesota, it wasn’t much convincing to go on board when Hayes asked if she wanted to apply.

“I proposed Camille and she was totally for it,” he said.

anticipation

The wind-whipped island has neither electricity, hot water or Wi-Fi, but what it has, Rosenfeld longs.

“Just being separated is such a luxury in the time when we live now,” she said.

Rosenfeld says that she is also excited to welcome visitors who are drawn there for the same reasons.

“The idea of ​​meeting all those people who are put on by the island in the same way as we are is really exciting,” said Rosenfeld.

“The chance to do this in a place where you can hear the ocean and see the stars and live on the candlelight is amazing.”

As a professional artist, Hayes says that he will be inspired for his next work.

“What could be nicer than an island like this?”

It is not surprising that you have already thought about what the most difficult part of this whole experience could be – the island that is implementing the island at the end of September.

“I think that will be the most challenging part … try to live somewhere and I’ll get a job,” said Rosenfeld.

“I’m just not trying to think about this part.”