Co. Wexford Teacher chosen as one of the new caretakers for the Great Blasket Island

A Secondary School Teacher from Co. Wexford has been chosen as one of the new caretakers for the Great Blasket Island.

Emma Melay, originally from Bunclody, and Darren McFadden, also a teacher, from Kildare are on career break and were chosen from thousands who'd applied for the job. They'll take on the role from the 1st of April, and will be living without electricity and running water for six months until the end of September.The couple has spent the past year travelling around Ireland in a camper van and also spent time living on Inis Oírr on the Aran Islands. Previous caretakers on the island include Emily Campbell from West Cork and Londoner Daniel Regan, Claire de Haas from The Netherlands and Brock Montgomery, originally from Canada, Limerick woman Niamh Kelleher and Jack Cakebread, who is originally from the UK but grew-up in France. Annie Birney and Eoin Boyle, from Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, moved to the isolated island as caretakers for a shorter three-month period due to Covid-19 restrictions in the summer of 2020. In 2019, Kildare couple Leslie Kehoe and Gordon Bond became the first caretakers on the Kerry island.