Inishnabro () is one of the

Blasket Islands The Blasket Islands () are an uninhabited group of islands off the west coast of the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland. The last island to hold a significant population, Great Blasket Island, was abandoned in 1954 due to population decl ...

County Kerry County Kerry () is a Counties of Ireland, county on the southwest coast of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is bordered by two other countie ...

in Ireland.

Geography

Inishnabro is separated from

Inishvickillane Inishvickillane or Inishvickillaun ( meaning 'Mac Killane's island') is one of the Blasket Islands of County Kerry, Ireland. History and Archaeological Significance Referred to by Blasket islanders as "The Inis",J. & R. Stagles, ''The Blaske ...

by a narrow sound (about 200 metres), and rises to 229 metres, and has an area of 49.15

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

Spaceport proposal

In 1973, an American scientist, Gary Hudson, approached the

Industrial Development Authority IDA Ireland () is the agency responsible for the attraction and retention of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) into Ireland. The agency was founded in 1949 as the Industrial Development Authority and placed on a statutory footing a year late ...

and then the Irish Consul General in Chicago, Sean Farrell, to propose using Inishnabro as the launching site for a new commercial space shuttle. Hudson said he represented a group including British astronomer

Fred Hoyle Sir Fred Hoyle (24 June 1915 – 20 August 2001) was an English astronomer who formulated the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and was one of the authors of the influential B2FH paper, B2FH paper. He also held controversial stances on oth ...

, an American astronaut who had walked on the Moon, and others. In a memorandum to the Irish

Department of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral re ...

, Farrell wrote that his initial reaction was "one bordering on disbelief" but then concluded that Hudson was "genuine enough". Department officials, however, concluded that "Whatever his objective may be it is apparent that the scheme he propounded to Mr Farrell in Chicago belongs mainly to the realms of science fiction" and that it could be "a gigantic leg-pull". The proposal only became public in 2004 when Irish

state papers The term state papers is used in Britain and Ireland to refer to government archives and records. Such papers used to be kept separate from non-governmental papers, with state papers kept in the State Paper Office and general public records kept ...

from the period were released under the

thirty-year rule The thirty-year rule (an informal term) is a rule in the laws of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and the Commonwealth of Australia that provide that certain government documents will be released publicly thirty years after they were c ...

External links

Hiking on Inishbro
Irish Times article

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Inis Na Bro Blasket Islands Uninhabited islands of Ireland Marilyns of Ireland