Hermits around the web – Hermitary
news, sites, and pages of interest about hermits and solitude
RTE, national radio and televiion, Ireland, offers a short piece titled “What ancient Irish monks can teach us about silence, solitude and slowing down.” Abou the physical setting of the town of Gougane Barra, its historical monk St. Finabar, and includes an interview (6 min.) with psychiatry professor Brendan Kelly (Trinity College Dublin) on the value of stillness and silence.
URL: https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0911/1532871-st-finbarr-gougane-barra-irish-monastic-tradition/
BBC Everyman series incliuded the 1993 documentary about Sister Irene, an Irish Cathoic hermit living in a cottage. The documentary is titled “First Irish Professed Hermit.” (Sister Irene later transferred to or created for herself a Carmelite convent : Carmelites of the Holy Face in Dunmanway, Co. Cork, Ireland ) The documentary is titled “First Irish Professed Hermit.”
URL: complete (60:06) https://youtu.be/p-QbNOg-MVc?si=vPWUKTEP-0WfJhHF;
Shorter version in two parts: URLs part 1 (19:53) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbDf6Jm3HaM; and part 2 (13:10) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJAaUz9YeG8&pp=ygUMYmJjIGV2ZXJ5bWFu ;
Carmekiute foundation URL: https://carmelitesholyface.com/
A piece in the Irish Examiner titled “Islands of Ireland: Hermit’s Island perfect for a life of contemplation” is partly travel and partly history, as the author visits Hermit’s Island in Lough Key, County Roscommon.
URL: https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/travel/arid-40051055.html
The SCMP or South Chia Morning Post’s Post Magazine offers an update on Dan Hummel, American veteran who quit the USA during the Vietnam War era and moved to Ireland. Title and byline: “The Ivy League-educated Vietnam veteran Dan Hummel has spent most of the past 46 years alone, having left Nixon’s America in 1969 never to return. He’s divided his time between the windswept wilds of Ireland’s Atlantic coast and the mountaintop delights of Dali, in Yunnan province, southwest China.”
From Independent.ie: “The souls who crave solitude – why some people find bliss in spending time alone.” Interviews with ordinary people talking about solitude and time alone.