Inishturk's new month-long food festival celebrates island life

Lying just over 14 kilometres off the mainland, Mayo’s tranquil island of Inishturk is a tempting destination for a myriad of reasons – its pristine beaches, its dramatic sea cliffs, its carpets of wildflowers, its colourful puffins, its incredible wealth of archaeology. It even has Ireland’s only off-shore-island natural lagoon. But there’s another thing that’s worth celebrating, and it’s something that everyone who takes a trip to ’Turk raves about: it’s locally sourced food.
Renowned for its freshly caught fish and mouth-watering lobster and crab, Inishturk will proudly showcase its seafood mastery at the Taste of Inishturk Festival, with planned workshops on food gathering and preparation – and lots of chances to sample and savour. Starting this weekend, July 27 and 28, with follow-up events on August 3, 4, 15 and 24, the festival will also feature lots of music, walks and wellness events like sunrise yoga, Atlantic dips and more.
This weekend, the festival will centre around the annual Inishturk Regatta, which features traditional currach racing. A great family event steeped in tradition, the regatta will take place against the evocative backdrop of music by O’Malley Trad, who will be playing live on the shoreline.
Proceedings start early on Saturday, with 5am yoga with Deirdre O’Toole of Yoga Ripples on beautiful Tránaun Beach and a refreshing dip in the sea. A great way to work up an appetite for a hearty breakfast and coffee by Mayo’s own Bean West. The Inishturk Regatta starts at 1pm and is sure to draw big crowds; the sight of these sleek currachs being powered through crystal clear water is really something to behold.
Afterwards, it’s more food – with visitors invited to the Community Club to sample some of the island’s spectacular seafood. But don’t fill up on these tasty bites too much – at 6.30pm the venue will provide a ‘full blown’ dinner service at the club’s Caher View Restaurant, with a menu showcasing the wide range of local seafood caught by local fishermen, as well as the island’s farm produce, such as Inishturk lamb. This fare will be complemented by lots of locally grown and island-foraged produce, from wild garlic to salad greens. The feast will be rounded off with a night of traditional music from 9pm.
Sunday’s events start with an island walk with some locals, who’ll point out the stunning views and many fascinating milestones along the way. For those who really want to get close to nature, there will be an ‘earthing’ event at the Tale of the Tongs sculpture on the island’s northern edge. This involves a guided bare-foot walk around the close-by freshwater lake. Literally, nothing between you and the ground that holds you. Happily, this is no harsh Lough Derg pilgrimage: There will be another sumptuous spread of mouthwatering food on offer back at the Community Club – a far cry from Derg’s ascetic black tea and dry bread.

Self-sustaining
THE summer is a busy time on Inishturk – hence the decision to spread the festival over four weekends. “There’s something different on every single weekend, and there are lots of people on the island, so it made sense,” explains Deborah Bennett, the island’s Community and Marketing Coordinator. She adds that all the island residents are really keen to celebrate all things Inishturk – its culinary traditions, live music, currach racing and more.
A big part of the festival is highlighting how islanders embrace self-sufficiency as a way of life. As Deborah says, “You can’t walk down the road to Tesco for your shopping.” While the ferry brings in supplies these days, there’s still a huge emphasis on – and pride in – the island being a self-sustaining community.
“Inishturk is probably unique in a way, in that it’s still very much a working island that’s not very commercialised,” Deborah adds, “so the businesses on the island would be fishermen and farmers. Most of the fishermen do their fishing out of the traditional Inishturk currach, using lobster pots and fishing rods… that’s how they’ve always fished. Currachs were ferries for the island people for many years as well.”
Inishturk currachs, traditionally rowed by three men, are wooden lattice and plank constructions with a calico and tarred outer lining for waterproofing. The fishermen return from the sea and carry their vessels to a currach pen, where they are upturned and anchored down, left lying like beached whales waiting to return to their element.
There’s plenty of food growing going on too. Phylomena Heaney’s polytunnel is producing lots of fruit and veg, and everyone is benefitting – especially the Caher View Restaurant’s new head chef, Andrew O’Halloran. “He’s very much about ‘local’ and getting as much as he can on the island rather than ordering it in from the (mainland) supermarkets,” Deborah says.
And for those looking for a baked treat and a cuppa, there’s always the Harbour Tearooms, run by Pauline O’Toole, who ‘bakes fresh scones every single day, and visitors pop in for tea and scones and a chat’.
The organisers of the Taste of Turk festival hope that it will give visitors a truly enjoyable, fully immersive island experience while also bringing some economic and cultural benefits for the entire island community.
Most of Inishturk’s 60-ish-strong full-time population is involved in one way or another. There’s the women who run the island’s B&Bs, the fishermen who will supply the fish for the festival, the islanders involved in running the regatta, the locals who staff the Community Club. So no matter where a visitor turns, there’ll be a local to welcome them, ready to chat happily about Inishturk and offer a delicious taste of island life.
Sounds like a winning recipe.

•   For information on the festival events taking place over the next month, keep an eye on inishturkisland.com, where more details will appear as the weeks go by. The website also has details of the ferry, which leaves from Roonagh Pier, near Louisburgh, and takes around 45 minutes. The Taste of Inishturk Festival is supported by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.