Globusz^® Publishing 

A new year and there were new challenges. Although we were still in the midst of winter, the bad luck at the end of last year had now given way to renewed optimism, which I felt duty bound to encourage to the best of my ability. The one exception to this feeling new optimism was Jock, who spent a difficult few months after Morag had died. He had lost any desire to care about his appearance or look after himself in general. He wandered aimlessly as a lost soul, as indeed he was without his soul mate. His demeanour seemed increasingly pitiful as his health declined. Rene could see what was happening and coaxed him into the canteen to get some reviving food into him. With Madge and Edith they gradually saturated him with their good spirits until he became a regular customer. Having seen him through the most difficult time they saw the beginnings of animation in him and a slow return of his good humour.

Edith became a particularly good friend, and she could be seen to link arms with Jock to escort him back to his croft each evening. They would have to run the gauntlet of raucous wolf-whistles from Nick who delighted in advertising it as the latest romance, taking place on the island.

Jock made good progress and, one day, Edith heard a long, droning sound emanating from his croft. Discounting the possibility that Jock was having difficulty with his breathing, she came to the conclusion that he had picked up his Christmas present and decided that he could play a lament on the pipes, which no doubt, reflected his mood of the day. It was another landmark and good news to share at the canteen that day.

Our first Friday night ceilidh, held on the New Years Day, was an event that almost everybody attended and although in its infancy, it was intended to be a gathering of traditional Scottish values. Angus had been only too pleased to take a turn with Jock and play his bagpipes as he introduced the evening’s proceedings with a Scottish reel and a Highland fling. The accompanying dancing was, at the best, very amateurish but at least the enthusiasm was there and no doubt proficiency would improve with time. Several of us had donned Highland costume, including sporrans and kilts. Traditionally the ceilidh is a winter evening’s entertainment, with spontaneous singing, music, discussions, and storytelling. We had tried to include all these things, with some encouragement to produce a degree of spontaneity. During the evening’s gathering, Gwyneth suggested holding a similar event to their Eisteddfod in Wales. In Scotland this similar traditional event is known as a ‘mod’, and is held annually in the summer. It would also include competitions in Gaelic poetry, prose, and music, but is held out of doors.

After a few weeks of the New Year, most of the original members had made it known that they were now committed to stay for at least another year and had taken well to the introduction of receiving payment and paying rent. We had agreed that these payments should be on a monthly basis, with payment going out near the end of each month, and thereafter the rents being due on the first day of each month. Islanders had now started paying for their food from at the canteen and purchasing some other essentials from the store for which Jock had taken responsibility. All were looking forward to the opening of a shop but it was still awaiting a rise in the priority list for construction.

I wanted to set new objectives and, with the agreement of the committee, had already advertised in the press for new members for the island with a bias towards specific building and construction skills. This time the number of replies overwhelmed me. I decided to call another meeting of the council members as soon as possible to make this response known to them and float the proposal for the most radical reform to date which was to double the population of the island.

“I’ll get straight down to business” — I began. “We now have the replies to our advertisement and can select those people we want to join us. I want to create our own building company incorporating new blood to complete our programme of renovation and double the number of properties here. As we have repeated many times, nearly all the small Islands around here have suffered steadily from depopulation. The movement of people through many years has been always away from, rather than to, any of these islands. Why is that so? My view is that it is because there is, in general, simply nowhere for any newcomers to live. Look at this number of applications I have for people who wish to come here”— I said, spreading out on the table some fifty or so letters. “There is no shortage of enterprising families wanting to come. There is only one essential thing missing at present, that will sustain life here in the future, and that is a new intake of people, thus increasing the permanent population. That obviously cannot happen unless there is somewhere for them to live. My suggestion therefore is that we aim to double the number of properties that we have at present. We cannot achieve that with our existing workforce over a short period of time. What better than to continue with the principle that some here have already started, that is, for each new family to build their own house? We can embrace this idea so that when I evaluate the new applicants I could, at first, give priority to those with building skills to help set us along this path.”

“Can you afford to pay these people for building their own houses?”

“This second year contingent, Denise, would live here on a somewhat different arrangement to those here now. Our existing arrangements could still apply. For example at certain later stages, we could pay them for any work that they carry out for the island but initially, they would be building their own house with their own money.

John?”

“Is it not possible that having built their house they would simply live here and not contribute anything at all to the island? I am also concerned that we would have this bias towards the one occupation, OK, for your initial idea, but we are then permanently biased into the future. Your cross section of society policy may falter slightly.”

“There are dangers, John, but remember, they will still need certain things from us, and it follows that they will contribute by way of their need to first purchase their plot of land or pay land rent to us. As we develop our services such as water and heating, appropriate charges will be made. If we build our shop, as we intend, all their day-to-day needs could be purchased on the island. Also, remember that we are engaged on a number of projects that will require additional labour into the future, for instance on both Gerry’s and Ian’s farms, the fish farm and any new ideas that develop in fishing or other areas.

“As for your point about bias, John, I can’t agree with you there. Just because they all have the same job title of construction worker it doesn’t mean they are no longer a cross section of society. They will all have a different outlook on the world and give a varied cross section of other values. Building need not be their main occupation, people from many different walks of life may attempt a self-build approach, and there will be no shortage of good advice.”

“Quite right Jim, it was not a valid point. I was just a little concerned that because the newcomers would operate on a different basis to those already here we could develop into a two class society.”

“It’s not a lot different in the sense that it reflects life on the mainland, where some own their property, others pay rent.”

“In which direction from the village would the new properties be built? I don’t think it would be very popular to obstruct the sea views that many of us have at present”— Miranda asked.

“I will get some plans drawn up so that everyone can comment on the proposals and make any suggestions. It will all be done as sympathetically as possible. I did have one idea: that some of the stone from the old crofts in the deserted village of the old town that we now know as Kerry could be used but second thoughts suggested that we could actually site a new village there. What would you like to say Gerry?”

“Would it be better to go for, say half the increase in people and property that you suggest over a period of say two years and not go headlong into such a drastic influx so soon?”

“I’d be prepared to compromise if the general view reflected that it would be a better option, but I was convinced that we must go in this direction as quickly as possible. Basically, the choice is whether we go for an increase of say, ten or twenty properties to be constructed over the first year, these being carried out by self build and our own building company in a proportion yet to be decided. Perhaps we should have a vote on it?

So we all voted and the result was a tie, three voting for an increase of ten and three voting for twenty. I therefore had the casting vote but decided to compromise and settle for fifteen new dwellings.

On the assumption that we had a similar balance of married couples, that meant we would attract in excess of forty new islanders.

Ian joined us having been invited into the meeting because he had gained further knowledge on the agricultural domes that we hoped to use. We all wanted him to share with us the information that he had gained as soon as possible.

“The important news is that I have found a supplier who can provide exactly what we had anticipated we would need. They are known as ‘solar domes’. Technically they are based upon the ‘geodesic’ dome principle, as were those of the Eden project in the West Country. Geodesic means that it is constructed of a number of triangles, hexagons or pentagons forming a grid in the shape of part of a sphere. They are normally supplied with glass within a supporting aluminium structure, although I suspect any other transparent material that was strong enough could be used instead of the glass. The whole structure is remarkably strong and stable. Glass four millimetres thick is recommended, and the great thing, from our point of view, is that the domes have been proved to withstand winds of up to 120 mph. As we predicted before, pressure from any horizontal wind force applies a downward pressure on the dome; any other vertical structure that would be much more likely to be blown away. Apparently there is also an excellent airflow within controlled by opening vents wherever required on the surface of the dome. I have been told that small units are proving to be popular on some of the Outer Hebridean islands, where they are used mainly as greenhouses, I thought this was an excellent advertisement to convince us that they were suitable on our somewhat windy island.”

“It seems these could be a good asset to extend the growing season for our vegetables which I believe was your intention. Do you have any information about the costs involved?”

“Yes, it obviously depends on size. The largest I could find, available as a self-assembly structure from a moderate sized manufacturer, was 9.5 metres in diameter. This gives a volume of 240 cubic metres and costing about £21,000. Of course they offer several smaller sizes.”

“I guess you would like to obtain one as soon as possible this year to get things planted in good time before the spring. If everyone on the committee is agreed then we’ll give you the OK to get one ordered.”

Ian looked pleased for he had a burgeoning interest in providing vegetables for the island and had been checking through all the available catalogues.

It was a major and far-reaching decision to open up our island to a large influx of new people. Our requirement was based upon our need for fifteen families. The interviews were similar to my earlier ones, but with the difference that this time there were many more rejections before the interview stage. We could be more selective as a direct result of the numerous applications we had. Only I, accompanied by Denise, actually carried out the interviews. This time, I was also able to take into account the views of all the committee members.

John’s earlier comment about bias resulting from our need for building skills did not come to the fore, for the simple reason that so many individuals appeared to be exceptionally confident about the task of constructing their own house, even though a few were from the building trade. In the event we were able to assure them that being part of our Building Company, where all the necessary skills were available, would ensure that information and advice could be exchanged and combined to progress their task. Consequentially we widened the scope of additional skills, abilities, nationalities and interests on the island markedly.

Past employments of those selected included experience in industry, the social services, financial institutions, the media, leisure pursuits, the police and fire services, labouring, pig farming, public transport services, the oil industry and education.

Our final choice was not made just on the applicants abilities which they brought to the island as a result of their past employment, we looked for the signs that those successful would relate to what we saw as the particular needs of island life and their attitude to any perceived lack of amenities of which they may have been used to.

Two of the families we chose were from Europe, one family from Holland, the other from Austria.

Not surprisingly, nearly all the applicants were from those who lived in or near the main urban areas. We detected that there was a great need to get away from stress of city life, where work was less satisfying and did not give them time to enjoy the little free time that was available. Others just had a desire to be self-employed. Some just had a more adventurous attitude and wanted to try to set their life in a new direction.

Immediate benefits to us following the selection, apart from the obvious one of additional labour, were the introduction of another teacher, more help in the kitchen and canteen and more artistic talent In addition several of the newcomers’ wives were able to continue with their previous employment as a result of Internet communication.

The subject of lottery funding had cropped up during the one of the council meetings that we held during the first year on Enniskerry. Then it was almost as a joke, but now I did see it as a possibility and wrote off for the necessary forms. My idea was that I could put up a reasonable case for our need to provide adequate accommodation for an increasing number of children requiring education in a school yet to be built. I emphasised the objective of sustaining and improving the standard of life on a vibrant new island community, which was becoming successful against the trend of decreasing numbers on other small islands. I heard nothing for a long period other than an acknowledgement of the receipt of my submission.

It came almost unexpectedly. A letter from the lottery commission stating simply that my application for lottery funding for the school building had been approved and a cheque was enclosed, value £800,000.

I was galvanised into an excited frenzy of first telephoning Miranda to tell her the unexpected good news and then informing the rest of the council. There was something of an unreal quality about the two connecting events, strange in view of my original good luck with winning the lottery, now followed by a successful request for more money from the same source.