A New Life: Moving to Inisbofin was a dream come true, Tony Smith tells Tony Clayton-Lea
It takes more than a leap of faith to resist the steady temptation of a well-paid job, and, instead, to jump onto the path that your heart directs you towards. That is exactly what Co Louth man Tony Smith has done. A visit in 1989 to the island of Inisbofin, off the Donegal coast, started a dream that gradually evolved into reality.
"A friend of mine introduced me to the island," says Tony, speaking from his hostel base on Inisbofin. "We came up here because he wanted to show me the place where his father came from. We acquired a boat and headed out to it from the mainland. We walked the island, the beach and the cliffs and I became besotted with the place. I started thinking about it quite a lot after that.
"After you'd be away from it for a while, you'd think the feeling would go away, but I became almost worried about the power it had over me. I was drawn back again and again. It seemed that any opportunity I was getting I'd take in order to see the island. That, in a way, demonstrated the power it had over me at that stage."
Tony was at this point working in the family-run Ford dealership business in Drogheda, working initially as a panel beater but, subsequently, overseeing the department. Paper work, however, didn't interest him, but some years passed before he bit the bullet and left the motoring business.
Not that he had forgotten about Inisbofin. At any opportunity, he says, he travelled up there from his home in Clogherhead.
At an early stage during his visits to the island, he had decided that he would like to own a property there, "but it wasn't feasible at the time because I was much younger and I wouldn't even have had the funds".
In 1997, he shook hands on a deal to buy a run-down house on the island, and by the close of 1999 had left his position at the dealership. Come 2000, he was commuting between Clogherhead and Inisbofin on a seasonal basis (virtually six months on, six months off), refurbishing a house that was, to all intents and purposes, derelict on an island that then had no running water or electricity.
"All that we kept of the original house were the two gable end walls and the front wall," says Tony. "It would have been far cheaper to level the place, but by keeping the two gable walls and half of the centre wall, I retained the two island fireplaces and chimneys. It would have been almost impossible to replicate those. I wanted to retain the spirit of the old building."
The enterprise was a labour of love, with a strong streak of stubbornness and commitment thrown in for good measure. By July, 2002, Tony, and various islanders and friends, had transformed the shell of a building into Teach Johnny, the island's first hostel and (currently) only business concern, and the social centre of the island community.
The 28-bed hostel is sectioned off to cater for different types of groups. Birdwatchers, says Tony, are regular visitors, while family groups, writers, poets, artists, musicians and essentially solitary thinkers also find what it is they're looking for.
And what about Tony himself? Has he found on Inisbofin what he couldn't find in a nine-to-five business environment? He pauses to consider the question.
"Most of us live our lives with a certain amount of different thoughts swimming around in our heads," he says.
"Sometimes, you just want to stop them swimming around, to put them in a little box. If you can imagine a place where you go and all those little thoughts just stop, then that's Inisbofin. Everything here makes complete and utter sense, everything falls into place, with no effort to be made in order for that to happen."
He's aware that his wilfulness has been disruptive to his family, but the support he receives from them, he says, is reflected in the sense of peace they also gain from being on the island during the core months of the summer season.
Peace of mind is what it's all about, according to Tony. The change of work environment - from wheeler dealing and panel beating to living and coping with the elements and a regular flow of visitors to Teach Johnny - is so much more beneficial now.
"Being so much more complete, rounded and knowing myself is a gratifying thing," he says. "We all spend a certain amount of time in the wilderness, endeavouring to find ourselves and getting to know ourselves better.
"Inisbofin is a powerful place, and it can help you to do that a lot quicker. It's not the answer to everything, and it's not a miracle, but sometimes I wonder "
• Teach Johnny, Inisbofin, closes on September 20th but is available for renting for interested groups or parties. It re-opens in spring, 2005. Contact Tony Smith on 087-6695984 or 087-2100120 for further details.