Its song is believed to have inspired the Blasket island air Port na bPúcaí, and now a young humpback whale has made scientific history off the Irish coast.
The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) and the Dutch-based North Sea Foundation have described as an "exciting breakthrough" the tracking of the young whale from the Netherlands to west Cork.
The juvenile Megaptera novaeangliae was photographed last May in the Wadden Sea off the Dutch coast. More than four months later, the same animal was photographed 1,200km away, off Toe Head, west Cork on September 28th.
The IWDG and the North Sea Foundation believe that this is the first time the movement of a humpback whale has been tracked within European waters and confirmed with photo-identification techniques.
"Imagine our surprise and delight when we saw images of the whale on the IWDG website," Wouter Jan Strietman of the North Sea Foundation said. "It is exciting to know that the young humpback whale that visited Dutch North Sea waters in May of this year has been seen alive and well, over 1,200km away.
"The travels of this humpback whale show the importance of a collective European responsibility in achieving a healthy marine environment."
The 5-6m whale was photographed by IWDG member Conor Ryan off Toe Head, Co Cork, during a whale-watching trip with Colin Barnes of West Cork Marine Tours on September 28th.
The digital images allowed for identification of the whale by its distinctive markings, as part of a catalogue which the IWDG maintains on its website.
The whale and dolphin group then received an e-mail from Mr Strietman, saying that he was confident that this particular whale had been observed in the Wadden Sea area between Den Helder and Texel Island, the Netherlands, from May 10th to 13th this year.
Padraig Whooley, IWDG sightings co-ordinator, said images of the humpback's head, back, dorsal fin and tailstock were compared, which confirmed that it was the same whale.
