This is a list of islands of Ireland. Ireland is itself an island, lying west of the island of Great Britain and northwest of mainland Europe.
The Hebrides off Scotland and Anglesey off Wales were grouped with Ireland ("Hibernia") by the Greco-Roman geographer Ptolemy,[1] but this was not geographically correct and is purely of historical interest.
English name | County | Area Hectares (Acres) |
Population 2022[2] |
Area Rank |
Population Rank |
Causeway/Bridge |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Great Island | Cork | 2,475 (6,115) | >13000[3] | 4 | 1 | No |
Achill Island | Mayo | 14,279 (35,283) | 2345 | 1 | 2 | No |
Gorumna | Galway | 2,376 (5,871) | 1044 | 5 | 3 | No |
Inishmore | Galway | 3,090 (7,635) | 820 | 2 | 4 | No |
Valentia Island or Valencia Island | Kerry | 2,578 (6,371) | 658 | 3 | 5 | No |
Lettermore | Galway | 912 (2,254) | 542 | 12 | 6 | No |
Arranmore or Aran Island | Donegal | 1,754 (4,335) | 478 | 7 | 7 | No |
Inch Island | Donegal | 1,386 (3,425) | 396 | 10 | 8 | No |
Inisheer or Inishere | Galway | 570 (1,400) | 343 | 17 | 9 | No |
Bere Island or Bear Island | Cork | 1,769 (4,372) | 218 | 6 | 10 | No |
Lettermullen or Lettermullan | Galway | 318 (787) | 214 | 25 | 11 | No |
Inishmaan | Galway | 948 (2,342) | 184 | 13 | 12 | No |
Inishbofin | Galway | 1,275 (3,151) | 184 | 11 | 12 | No |
Rathlin Island | Antrim | 1,437 (3,552) | 141 | 9 | c.22 | No |
Clare Island | Mayo | 1,640 (4,053) | 138 | 8 | No | |
Myross Island | Cork | 96 (238) | 31 | No |
The number of people living on Irish offshore islands decreased dramatically during the Irish famine and the period following it. Since then the trend on most islands has been a decreasing population until the 1950s and 1960s, during which many islands were forcibly evacuated by the Irish Government as continuous bad weather meant that islanders were unable to travel to the mainland for several consecutive months. Of the remaining islands that were not evacuated, many of their populations have continued to dwindle ever since, with some seeing stabilisation or even a slight uptick in population during and after the Celtic Tiger.
The chart below shows the total number of people living on Irish islands throughout the years.
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Source: Central Statistics Office. "CNA17: Population by Off Shore Island, Sex and Year". CSO.ie. Retrieved 12 October 2016. |
the area above high tide is approximately 300 hectares
It may therefore be concluded that the area of the island was 23.5 ha when steel processing started in 1938 and 34.9 ha when production ceased in 2001