The Islanders sent a telegram to the Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, urgently requesting supplies which duly arrived two days later by boat. In April 1947, the island was cut off from the mainland for weeks due to bad weather. The weather was a present and constant hazard. During WWII shortages of sugar, soap, tea, paraffin, tobacco and flour/bread intensified this draw further. Island life was very tough and the draw of emigration was strong, ultimately becoming the death knell for the Island. They subsisted mainly on fish, supplementing their diet with potato, oats, hunting rabbits and the eggs of birds who nested on the island due to lack of wood they had to use heather, peat and turf as fuel. It was the most westerly settlement in Ireland, with islanders mostly living in primitive cottages perched on the relatively sheltered north-east shore. In the 1840s it was estimated that a population of about 150 people were living on the island. A Ferriter castle once stood at Rinn an Chaisleáin. The earliest known reference to people living on the island was at the start of the 1700s. The Great Blasket has been inhabited on and off for centuries. At longitude 10° 39.7', Tearaght Island is the westernmost of the Blaskets, and thus the most westerly point of the republic of Ireland. Garraun Point at 52☀6′16″N 10☃0′27″W / 52.1045°N 10.5074°W / 52.1045 -10.5074 has been incorrectly cited as being the most westerly point of the Irish mainland, but this is Dunmore Head.
The nearest mainland town is Dunquin a ferry to the island operates from a nearby pier during summer months. The island lies approximately two kilometres from the mainland at Dunmore Head, and extends six kilometres to the southwest, rising to 346 m (1,135 ft) at its highest point (An Cró Mór).
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