Island in the Sun: One Family Escapes The City For A New Life

Tara McMahon, originally from Co. Fermanagh grew up the third youngest of eleven children in the pretty village of Garrison on the border of Donegal and Leitrim. "We grew up in the countryside in a busy house that was always a cacophony of noise – and still is!" After meeting her future husband, Hughie in the University of Limerick, the couple moved to Dublin where they spent a couple of years living and working. "We got engaged. We knew that we wanted to start a family, and we both liked the idea of raising kids in the countryside, so we started looking for work outside of the city." What the couple couldn’t have imagined was how far out of the city they would eventually end up. "During a search for jobs online I came across the Tourism and Marketing position and that’s where our Bofin adventure started." "The first time we set foot on the island was when we made the journey for the interview and within a month of that we were packing up our things from our gorgeous little house on the North Strand and heading for our new address on the North Beach. We were so excited. We had nothing to lose if it didn’t work out – we had no kids and nothing to make us stop and think too seriously about how sensible a move it was (or wasn’t!). All we knew was that what we had seen of Bofin we loved and we wanted to see more." That was November 2012, and four years later life has changed dramatically for the couple. It's been a busy few years. Tara and Hughie got married in 2013, welcomed their first child, Kilty in 2014, and little Nancy was born in 2015. "We’ve lived here for four winters and three and a bit summers, we’ve spent two Christmases here, seen people come, and people go. We still feel as strongly now as ever that this magical island of craic and beauty and warm people is where we were always meant to end up." Inishbofin, a tiny island – just 5.7km by 4 km – lies seven miles off the Connemara coast. It is a stunning place, an area of conservation with rare species of birds nesting there. There are also breathtaking hikes around the island, as well as scuba diving and sea angling; Bofin is also a mecca for trad musicians and fans. The island is believed to have been inhabited as early as 6000 BC. These days the island's main industries are farming, fishing and tourism and five small townships, West Quarter, Fawnmore, Middle Quarter, Cloonamore and Knock, are the hubs for the island's population of about 160. So what is life like on an island? "Hughie works seasonally and keeps the kids in winter, as I work all year around. During the summer we have a community playgroup and a wide circle of friends and visiting family that help with the little ones. It’s easy going here; nobody gets too stressed out. I leave for work on my bike at five to nine and am home five minutes after I finish! Most evenings when the weather is fine we go and throw stones on the north beach – which is just outside our front gate. Some days after work, if it’s really nice, we’ll go over to Dumhach for a quick paddle and play before we get the little ones home for tea and the wind down to bedtime." "Sometimes I think that it might be easier to move back to the mainland where we could earn more regular money, where family would be closer, and Chinese takeaways more plentiful but then you look at the amazing quality of life we have here." "Our kids are growing up in a safe, close community where everyone looks out for each other. The ocean is their swimming pool and the whole island their playground. We are never more than five minutes away from them at any given time should they need us, we have no commute to work and seriously when the sun is shining, and the weather is calm, there is no more beautiful place on earth." Follow Tara's island life on Instagram Photo credits: Jane McGarrigle and Sarah Pannasch