the story of people forced off their island home, who later returned. And the story of the Selkies and a lost child.
a film by John Sayles.
Soundtrack here.
this is about an island off the coast of Ireland, but the BBC has a real story about the Island of St Kilda, with photos of those who once lived there...
Early on the morning of 29 August 1930, the last 36 residents began the evacuation from St Kilda, a group of islands 110 miles off the west coast of Scotland that had been lived on for thousands of years. Three hours later, 13 men, 10 women and 13 children were aboard the ship that would take them away from their homes forever. They left because they were concerned they would not last another winter on the barren North Atlantic archipelago, which was virtually cut off from the mainland for nine months of the year by rough seas and winds.
all very sad: A way of life gone. Families broken up by the move to the cities and small towns of the mainland or emigration overseas.
But as one who has lived in the poorer areas of the USA and in various countries in the third world, I am a little less nostalgic about the wonderfulness of such a hard, primitive life where TB, accidents, and childbirth could kill you, and hunger was a danger every winter.
Sigh.
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