Kildare couple give up jobs for island life with no TV, Internet or hot water

A young Irish couple have ditched their civil service jobs to live without home comforts on Great Blasket Island for seven months this year.

Lesley Kehoe, 27, and Gordon Bond, 28, from Co Kildare, were chosen from hundreds of applicants to manage the Great Blasket Island Experience, a boat and accommodation centre three miles off the Dingle Peninsula.

They will stay on the island from April to October and because there is no electricity will be without the internet, television or hot showers.

Lesley spoke to Ryan Tubridy on Radio One yesterday about what she anticipates, what she's afraid might happen, and what she hopes will happen.

She joked that her relationship with Gordon would be tested to the limits!

However she admitted her love of reading should help her pass the time.

Great Blasket Island - which measures  four miles long and half a mile wide and has more than 1,100 acres of unspoiled mountainous terrain.

It is home to an abundance of wildlife, including wild donkeys and a colony of grey seals.

At its peak there was a population of around 190 people in the 19th century which survived on fishing.

Many lived in 30 old stone cottages, while a number of two storey houses were built in 1909.

The island, home to writers like Peig Sayers, was where J M Synge studied Irish.

The island was abandoned by in inhabitants in 1953 amid declining population and harsher winters.

It is now largely State owned and visited by up to 10,000 people a year.

The island is also now highly protected with several European and national environmental designations.