Comhdháil Oileáin Na hEireann was founded in 1984 "when the Islands were battling poverty, mass emigration, bureaucratic hostility, lack of services and infrastructure and the constant threat of enforced evacuation and clearance," says Rhoda Twombly, Secretary of the organisation, which has been representing the communities on the offshore islands for 40 years.
It will celebrate this anniversary on Inis Oírr in the Aran Islands, this Wednesday and Thursday, September 18/19.
Rhoda Twombly, Secretary of Comhdháil Oileáin Na hEireann
The small group of island people, Co-op Managers and community leaders, who set up the Comhdháil, which became known as the Islands' Federation "had a vision of a different future for the remaining inhabited Islands and were determined to achieve equality and justice for all the islands, Gaeltacht and non-Gaeltacht," Rhoda Twombly told me. The items on the agenda of the first meeting were ferry services, access issues, infrastructure, housing and taxation.
Ireland's Offshore Islands: Housing Needs Survey
Much has been achieved over the years by Comhdháil on its primary aims, but housing remains the existential challenge, as shown in its research study "Ireland's Offshore Islands: Housing Needs Survey."
"The offshore islands are an integral part of the State's heritage"
The offshore islands are an integral part of the State's heritage, a bastion of culture and language and their protection and development is guaranteed by government policy, but as it marks 40 years of representing those communities, Comhdháil says that, while life has improved on the islands with better ferries and services, more became depopulated over the years, so the annual meeting and conference will be charting the way forward for the future.
Rhoda Twombly outlined the Comhdháil's work to me in this podcast below:
