![peig blasket peig blasket](https://www.greatblasketisland.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/photo-12.jpg)
They retained a castle there, at Rinn an Chaisleáin (Castle Point) in the lower village. From the end of the 13th Century the Ferriter family leased the Islands from the Earls of Desmond, and from Sir Richard Boyle after the dispossession of the Desmond Geraldines at the end of the 16th Century. In the past the whole group of Islands was referred to as Ferriter's Islands. The Blasket Islanders themselves referred to the other Islands as the Lesser Blaskets. Locally, the Great Blasket was called simply the Island, or more formally, the Western (or Great) Island. Even the most casual of observers will notice that the Islands and mainland were once one, perhaps a few million years ago the experts confirm this impression. The Blaskets are and have always been an intrinsic part of the parish of Dún Chaoin.
![peig blasket peig blasket](https://www.independent.ie/life/travel/9a363/35781749.ece/AUTOCROP/w1240h700/blasket%20tra%20ban.jpg)
He was known for his work in Irish lexicography and his poetry and novels won him several awards, including the Oireachtas prize in 1982 for his novel "Ó Thuaidh!" The copyright is held by the Government of Ireland and the material is used with the permission of Ionad an Bhlascaoid Mhóir / The Blasket Centre, Dún Chaoin, Co.
![peig blasket peig blasket](https://www.greatblasketisland.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/bg2.jpg)
This article and its accompanying photographs are taken from the booklet "Na Blascaodaí / The Blaskets", written by Pádraig Ua Maoileoin, who was born in Dunquin in 1913 and died in 2002.