Tory Island
— — an Irish-speaking island with a king.
Not only on a wall.
“An Irish-speaking island about nine miles off the north-west coast of Donegal, roughly five kilometres long and home to around 140 people. The community still elects a king by acclamation, a custom that has held for centuries and is the last of its kind in Europe. St. Colmcille founded a monastery here in the sixth century; a Tau cross from that period still stands near the harbour. In the 1950s Derek Hill began visiting and the island painters grew into a recognised school. Most of what stays with people is the cliffs, and the sound of the wind on the back of the island. from the studio
Tory Island, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Tory Island, in Irish Toraigh, lies about 14.5 kilometres off the north-west coast of County Donegal in the North Atlantic. It measures roughly 5 kilometres east to west and 1 kilometre across at its widest, with a population of about 140, almost all Irish-speaking. The island is part of the Donegal Gaeltacht. A ferry from Magheroarty on the mainland makes the crossing in about 45 minutes and runs more often in the warm months than the winter, when storms can keep boats in harbour for weeks at a stretch.
St. Colmcille is said to have founded a monastery on Tory in the sixth century. A Tau cross, one of only two surviving in Ireland, still stands above the harbour at West Town, along with the stump of a round tower built of beach cobbles. The island elects a king by acclamation, a role with no legal power but real social weight; Patsy Dan Rodgers, painter and ambassador, held the position from 1993 until his death in 2018, and the title has continued. Tory's painters became a recognised naïve school after the artist Derek Hill began visiting in the 1950s.
The ferry from Magheroarty pier in north-west Donegal runs daily through the summer and on a reduced winter schedule, weather permitting; the crossing takes about 45 minutes and can be cancelled with little notice in heavy seas. The island has one small hotel, a hostel, a café, and a community-run gallery in West Town that shows work by the Tory painters. The cliffs on the north and east sides rise sharply; the south side holds the two villages, West Town and East Town. Visitors generally come for a day or stay two or three nights to walk and listen.