Has anybody else heard of this Island.
My granny used to tell me about it years ago, but I haven't heard it mentioned by anyone since.

I'm not really looking for info, (she told me enough) just really to see if it rings a bell with anyone.

She told me she was going to spend her final holiday there by the way........still hasn't sent a card though.

It is an Island that only appears once every seven years. It used to appear on maps, until the modern era. The Country Brazil was named after it. It was named after Bres, son of Elatha and Ériu.

In John Purdey's Atlantic Chart, published in 1830, its position was given as 51 degrees 10 minutes North by 15 degrees 30 minutes West. It was removed in the 1865 edition. This is off of the South West coast of Connacht.

Other names are the Isle of the Living, The Isle of Truth, Of Joy, Of Fair Women, and Of Apples. It is spelled Brazile, Brazil, Bresil, O Brazile, Hy Brasil, and probably twenty other ways.

Goll was supposed to go to this phantom Isle after his death. I hope this helps.

You see that's the interesting bit Daryl.
My granny always thought it suspicious that a whole island could be overlooked from one map revision to the next. Especially, subsequent to the aftermath of the famine and the disappearance of a third of the islands population.

She was never convinced that all that many ever made it to America, Gaelic speaking in particular.
Mothers apparently desperate to see their children have a chance of living, forbade them to speak Gaelic and gave them a crash course in English to improve their chances in America. A fact that didn't go unnoticed by people with the means to prevent or prolong the wholesale slaughter. Probably an indicator of their inaction is the prevalence today of English. It worked better than any legislation.

So! Clapped out steamers, sinking shortly after setting sail, apparently talking everyone on board to the bottom of the sea. She wondered why some of these missing ships were spotted in relatively good condition somewhere in the mid Atlantic, heavy on cargo and short on passengers.
Even though passengers it seems are the ones who financed the crossings, life savings and that sort of thing.

Was there an unscheduled stopping off point somewhere along the way, not far off the famine ravaged west coast?
If there was, then none of the reluctant holidaymakers managed to send a postcard either.
Can you sink a whole island?

A priest told me, that she was talking out off the top off her head, and it was all just a myth. But then again it's funny how so much of Irish history is relegated to myth.

Just keeping my old rebel granny's flag flying.

Theere were reports of people thinking they had made it to America, only to realize that they were nowhere close to America. These people felt that they had seen O Brazile.

The island does not sink, it literally just disappears. If you are on it when this happens, you disappear too. It normally would appear out of nowhere at sunset, and disappear the next day. Since it is also called the isle of fair women, perhaps many men would not want to leave. (Regardless of what definition of fair you use. *LOL*)

Arthur's Avalon? (the 'Isle of Apples' made the connection). If you think it's the same island and like great books, read "The Mists of Avalon' by Marion Zimmer Bradley. :)

Read it, It was great. The movie was a bit disappointing, however. Avalon, is a similar place, and indeed might have come from the same basic legend, but it was supposed to be located east of Ireland, and it disappeared into the mists. (Henceforth the book's name, the mists of Avalon.) Please do not take Ms. Bradley's book as anything more than a story based loosely on old legends. She has said many times that it is a fictional story and many its elements she invented or changed from their original form to suit the story. All the same, it is an excellent read.

Oh, believe me, I am well aware that it is fiction. *G*

My grandfather is a druid from Northern Ireland and he fully believes in Tir na nOg. He used to tell me stories of an island the the Sidhe inhabited that time stood still on. Land of eternal youth. The druids to this day still believe in the isle.