James Hayes, from Tralee in Co Kerry, and Camille Rosenfeld, from Minneapolis, Minnesota in the US, have been selected to be the next caretakers on Co Kerry’s Great Blasket Island.

The couple met at Burren College of Art in Co Clare in 2021 when James was the resident artist and Camille was visiting as part of a study abroad program. They got married in Boston this past June and have been living in Tralee ever since.

“We’re very excited,” James, 37, told the Oliver Callan programme on RTÉ Radio 1 on Monday.

Camille, 26, said the six-month gig is something that had been on her husband’s radar for a while.

“It’s just right up our alley,” Camille said. “We love being outside, especially in Ireland, it’s so gorgeous here.

“It just seems like an amazing opportunity and we’re so lucky and happy to have been picked.”

Alice Hayes and Billy O’Connor, who own the holiday cottages and coffee shop on the Great Blasket Island, hire a new duo each year for the unique caretaker job. In 2019, their job post went viral internationally, drawing some 80,000 applications, forcing them to now place a cap on how many applications they will accept.

It was second time lucky this year for James and Camille who also applied for the role last year, though ultimately the timing wouldn’t have suited.

Alice told The Irish Times on Monday: “When we saw that Camille and James had applied again for the positions for this year, we were delighted as they are just so enthusiastic and committed to outdoor life.”

Simply put, James and Camille will manage the coffee shop and the four holiday cottages on the Great Blasket Island. This involves meeting and greeting overnight guests, serving tea and coffee to day visitors, and ensuring the day-to-day running is being met. 

While the caretaker role might sound idyllic, the Great Blasket Island has no electricity, hot water, or WiFi, and days working are largely determined by the weather.

In this year’s job posting, Alice and Billy said they were “looking for a hardworking, responsible, and trustworthy duo that have great people skills and initiative,” but cautioned that “this is not a holiday job. The season can get VERY busy and you will be on your feet for most of the day.”

While the job can get “intense,” the perks are attractive – all food and board is included on top of the duo’s wages.

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Great Blasket Island. (Ireland’s Content Pool)

“We’re both fairly hardy, outdoorsy people,” James said with a laugh on RTÉ Radio on Monday when asked why the job appealed to him and Camille.

He added that they are “there isn’t bad weather, just the wrong clothes” kind of people.

James did say there is a wind turbine that he and Camille can use to power their phones to keep in touch with the mainland but acknowledged: “It’s pretty basic alright.

“No hot showers and no light switches or anything like that.”

James and Camille will take up their roles from April 1 up to October 3.

Beyond tending to the cottages and visitors, the couple will be “just taking in the beauty outside of that,” James said.

Camille added that it is “amazing” that they’ll be living in Peig Sayers’ house.

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Great Blasket Island. (Ireland’s Content Pool)

What is the Great Blasket Island?

The Great Blasket Island (An Blascaod Mór in Irish) is the main island in the group of six off the coast of the Dingle Peninsula in Co Kerry. The other five islands are Beiginis (Beginish), Inis na Bró (Inishabro), Inis Mhic Uileáin (Inishvickillane), Inis Tuaisceart (Inishtooskert), and An Tiaracht (Tearaght Island).

The group of islands was inhabited for centuries by a small but close-knit Irish-speaking population who followed a traditional way of life – farming, fishing, weaving – and eventually became the subjects of important linguistic studies for their use of a largely unchanged version of the Irish language.

At its peak, Great Blasket Island had only some 175 residents, but their cultural output was immense, including important Irish language works such as “An tOileánach” (“The Islander”) by Tomás Ó Criomhthain, “Fiche Bliain Ag Fás” (“Twenty Years a-Growing”) by Maurice O’Sullivan, and “Peig,” by Peig Sayers.

In 1953, however, the last remaining inhabitants of the Blasket Islands were permanently evacuated to the mainland.

Today, the Great Blasket Island can be experienced through day tours or in self-catering accommodation.