In this episode we set sail with Neil, past Fasnet Rock, fleeing the horror of famine.

The Vikings called it Hvasstann-ey, ‘the island shaped like a sharp tooth’, the Irish knew it first as Carraig Aonair, ‘the Lonely Rock’, then as Fastnet, ‘Ireland’s Teardrop’.

A treacherous island, little more than a jagged rock, it has been responsible for countless shipwrecks and deaths at sea. It was the last part of Ireland many emigrants saw as they sailed to North America to escape the Great Hunger and many a teardrop was shed over it.

A rock wreathed in sadness and tears, standing as a fitting memorial to lives lost at sea and the lives driven off to be lived elsewhere.

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