Irran Islands’ S.O.S. For Women

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 39, 10 January 1949, Page 5

Irran Islands’ S.O.S. For Women

The bleak Irran Islands in the Atlantic, 30 miles off the west coast of Ireland, sent out an S.O.S. recently for more women. The spokesman was the uncrowned king of the islands, Pat Mullen, 63, who told a London newspaper: “What we want is Spanish women to introduce new blood.” He explained that girls were quitting the islands for the bright'lights on the mainland, leaving the men to faee the prospect of life-long bachelorhood. But fair-haired postmistress Mary Mullin, 26, told a correspondent oh the only telephone in the group of three islands: “Who is Pat Mullen, anyway? He only calls himself King because his father was called King.” Miss Mullin admitted that in the past six months 200 of the younger inhabitants, half of them girls-, had left the islands for America and Britain. In the past 10 years there had been only five marriages, she said. The largest island, nine miles long by a mile and a half wide, contains 3000 people; 2500 live on the two others.