In January 1932 on a
small uninhabited island in Lough Beg, seventy six year old pensioner George
McErlain reversed the trend and built a wooden cabin on Duck Island where he lived
a solo, hermit existence. Occasionally George, who became known as ‘the
Robinson Crusoe of Ulster’, would row over to Antrim to attend church services.
He lived by fishing and catching pike in the Lough. The Lough which is located
just north of Lough Neagh was a major religious retreat.
His story made front page
news as he went off grid as they would say today, the post office complaining
how difficult it was to deliver post and packages to the island dweller. In a
story on the front page of the Evening Herald on July 7th 1932, the article revealed,
‘Over
these islands he rules like a king, without any subjects except the birds that
know his sun-bronzed face so well and come unafraid, to his hand. He is more
lonely than Robinson Crusoe, for no man Friday is by his side.’
But if, as this reporter
did today, you row out to the island of the loneliest man he will run to greet you
with a welcoming smile and tell you some of the blessings of solitude and the
secrets of the islands.
In August one of those
packages brought his story to international prominence when a woman who signed
herself Madcap Madeline sent him a wireless set. In a note with the wireless
set the donor said that she hoped the set would help pass away ‘pleasantly a
few hours’. She said that she envied what she considered an ideal life.
We don't know how the radio impacted his life but it's arrival on the small island for his pleasure certainly gained column inches in the newspapers and periodicals of the day.
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