Life on Clare Island, Co. Mayo, Ireland 1974

Michael Joe O’Malley (1914-1988), outside his cottage on Clare Island, talks to Nodlaig McCarthy about living alone and his philosophy of life.

Michael Joe has lived on Clare Island all his life and rarely, if ever, leaves the island. Finishing his formal education after primary school at the age of 12, he is very much self-educated, has an enormous collection of books, and has arrived at a philosophy of life that is very much his own. He describes his relationship with the plants and animals on the land which he farms. For Michael this relationship does not exist when a farm becomes a business.

He has arrived at a philosophy of life that is very much his own.

Although physically alone, he describes island life as “not isolated enough” and feels that it is through isolation that you find compassion and charity.

This episode of ‘This Day’ was broadcast on 8 December 1974.

‘This Day’ was a religious affairs series broadcast in the 1970s. The programme was presented by Jim Sherwin and Nodlaig McCarthy.