In 2015, I was working in publishing as Regional MD for Johnston Press Newspapers. We had started a project in the Limerick Leader, one of the newspapers that I was managing, digitising old newspaper archives. One day, while sifting through boxes of photo negatives, the editor stumbled across a set of images taken on Scattery Island in the 1940s. Back then, the installation of the island’s very first telephone—so the River Pilots could be reached by the Limerick Harbour Commissioners—was headline-worthy news. A photographer had been dispatched to capture the moment.
Among the images was one that stopped me in my tracks.
There, amidst these images was my father—as a young boy—perched proudly on top of a haystack, surrounded by his brothers, my grandfather, and great-grandfather. They were out in the fields, taking in the hay, with Scattery’s round tower rising behind them like a silent witness. This was no ordinary photo. It is the only image my father now has of his entire family together all because of a Limerick Leader photographers trip to the island. A precious frozen moment in time that somehow found its way back to my family.
That photograph reconnected me with the island—not just its history, but my history. It brought back childhood memories of visiting Scattery with my father, walking through the ruins, listening to his stories told.
Six months later, I came across a notice from the OPW seeking a new ferry operator for the island. And that was it. A sign. A pull. A quiet voice saying, “It’s time.” So I left the media world behind. We moved home to West Clare and launched the ferry service to Scattery Island in 2017.
It wasn’t just a career change. It was a return – guided by memory, anchored in legacy, and carried forward by purpose.